Best of Both Worlds
by CUIntheair
Summary: Dealing with your past is hard. Especially when it outshines your present. Chris is forced to deal with finding out about the time-traveling version of himself that his family grew to love, when his own future falls into jeopardy.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One- Baby Chris**

**2004**

It had been a month since Baby Chris was born and Piper had not left the house. It seemed like that was his name, Baby Chris. It went without saying that any mention of him without the title of Baby was in reference to the 22 year old alternate timeline version of the Halliwell boy. The dead version of Chris. It was painful for everyone, and greatly lessened the joy that should have accompanied the arrival of Baby Chris. That, coupled with the betrayal of Gideon and near-miss irreparable trauma to Wyatt, was what kept Piper indoors. The same emotional demons kept Leo far away from the Halliwell manor, until that day.

He couldn't stay away any longer, missing both his boys and feeling homesick, Leo orbed back to the manor just in time for the doorbell to ring. He stood in what had been his and Piper's room with the love of his life smiling at him in surprise. Paige yelled out an "I'll get it!" from across the hall and went bounding down the stairs to answer the door. Leo took a step forward, still keeping distance between him and Piper. He couldn't muster a smile, but tried anyway.

"Do you want to see him?" Pipers voice was soft and understanding. Leo cleared his throat and nodded. Piper gave him an approving smile and gestured towards the hallway, "He's downstairs with Phoebe."

They hadn't even reached the top of the stairs when they ran into Paige, "Leo?" She sounded more suspicious than surprised, "Someone's at the door for you. How did she know you were here?"

"I don't know, is she still down there?" Paige nodded, "Did she say what it was about?"

"No, just that her name was Talia and she needed to talk to you. I said you weren't here, she asked me to check, so I told her I would and then I ran into you." Paige used more hand gestures than truly necessary, and stumbled on the unfamiliar name.

Leo stood very still, his eyes suddenly very alert, "Thalia?"

Paige caught on to Leo's severe reaction, "Demon?"

"No." But his voice was terse, and it didn't ease the concerned look on the sisters' faces. Before they could ask anymore questions he had run down the stairs and flung open the front door, a look of unsure anger on his face.

"The Elders didn't send me, Leo." A comforting soprano voice carried up to Piper and Paige still standing halfway up the stairs. They both hurried to catch up, still completely confused by the situation.

"Who did?" Leo's voice was thick with resentment, something that was becoming alarmingly regular since Gideon's betrayal.  
Piper and Paige stood in the doorway, peering around Leo to see the person standing there talking about the Elders and knocking on the door instead of orbing in. This was all very irregular.

"I don't answer to anyone, Leo. I came because I had to come. Or are you questioning me now?" Her voice was calm, almost bored.

Piper's temper was growing short, "Alright, what's going on? Leo, who is this person?"

"Hello Piper, my name is Thalia, and if you want to save Chris you will calm your husband down and invite me in." Everyone fell silent, and in the silence, Thalia pushed serenely past them and into the house.

"Excuse me, what the hell do you think you're doing? You can't just come in here." Piper followed Thalia, trying to corral her back towards the door.

"At least I knocked. How often do you have strangers barging right in and attacking you? And I'm here to help, so I'd appreciate it if you calmed down. And Leo, if you do what you're thinking about doing I'll have to stop you and the noise would make the baby cry. Now if you all don't mind, we need to sit down and have a very serious discussion." She crossed her arms and looked at Piper and Leo, holding the stare until Leo breathed a heavy sigh of defeat.

Piper wasn't having it, "You want a calm conversation, you'll tell me who you are first. And what you know about Chris."

Thalia smiled patiently, "I'm Thalia. Also called, rather incorrectly I might add, the last Pythia. Leo can fill you in on the rest so that you can discuss whether or not to trust me. I'll step out back. I'd like to see the garden." She gave a rather cheeky smile and left the room.

Paige let out a begrudging giggle, "Well, I got to admit, I like her style."

Piper turned to Leo, eyebrows crinkled in angry confusion, "Leo... you want to explain?"

Phoebe walked in holding Baby Chris, "Hey, so random woman walking through the house." Her smile was wide but so were her eyes, "Anything I should know about?"

"Leo was just about to tell us." Paige nodded her head forcefully.

"She's known as the Pythia." Leo breathed out slowly.

"Pythia, what's Pythia, and why... why does it sound familiar?" Phoebe looked questioningly to Paige, who shrugged her shoulders in response.

"Because she's in the Book of Shadows. One of the earlier pages, I believe. The Pythia used to be another title of the Delphic Oracle."

"Right." Phoebe spoke in rushed relief, "I knew I remembered it, when I first started getting premonitions I did so much reading about famous seers and fortune tellers." Her smile dropped a notch, "But there hasn't been a Delphic Oracle since the rise of the Roman empire."

"So how is she the Pythia?" Piper asked almost immediately.

"That's one of the reasons she said that it's incorrect. She was never appointed as the high priestess."

"You make it sound like she had the opportunity to." Paige quipped with minimal sarcasm.

"Yeah, that was thousands of years ago." Phoebe waved her hand as if dismissing the possibility.

"I know. Thalia has the gift of foresight. Stronger than anyone before of since her, and she was chosen as one of the oracles in Apollo's temple in Delphi. She had just started, and would have been made the Pythia when something happened." He trailed off.

"What, Leo, what happened? What are you talking about?" Piper tried to sound calm, but her words came out clipped and impatient.

"And please don't let there be more time travel going on, because I just can't handle that right now." Phoebe shook her head slowly and smiled down at Baby Chris, still in her arms.

"Well, no one knows what happened. She stopped aging. After a few decades she left the temple and went on the run. She usually works as a traveling fortune-teller, keeping to herself. But the thing is, she sees the future. She sees every possible future, and has proven it to the Elders more than enough times that her vision is perfect. Which makes her more valuable than any other seer in the world. She doesn't usually intervene though, so the fact that she's here means something big. The problem is, what helps the future of the world, and what helps this family..." His words faltered.

"Could be two very different things." Piper finished, sending chills down everyone's spines.

"If she saw a future where Wyatt is evil... well I wouldn't want her as an enemy." Leo didn't sound optimistic.

"Well, Wyatt is at magic school so he's safe for now." Paige spoke confidently.

"Are you really just gonna breeze right by the 'she stopped aging' part? What is she?" Phoebe arched her eyebrows in frustrated thought.

"No one is really sure. Wait, why is he at magic school?" Leo asked.

"Baby Chris was running a little fever, and I just wanted to keep the two of them separated in case it was contagious." Piper responded almost immediately.

"Speaking of which," Phoebe handed the baby over to his mother.

"Yeah, speaking of which, she told us straight up that she was here about Chris." Paige almost sounded accusing.

"Is she trustworthy?" Piper asked it but all three sisters stared at Leo, waiting for the answer.

"She's truthful, and not without mercy." Leo seemed to be choosing his words a little too carefully, "If she were here to hurt one of the boys, she would explain to us why first." He sounded almost defeated.

"Well isn't that comforting." Paige spoke under her breathe. Phoebe gave her a small smack on the shoulder, "What? He makes it sound hopeless."

"If Thalia decided to kill Chris or Wyatt, we wouldn't be able to stop her." The defeat in Leo's voice was intensifying.

"And why the hell not?" Piper nearly yelled.

"I can promise you that it won't come to that." Everyone turned to see Thalia waiting in the hallway, "It didn't cross your mind even once that I was here to help, did it?" She walked towards them, her voice a little sad.

"Well, trust isn't our strong suit." Paige crossed her arms in front of her defensively, though her tone was playful.

Thalia gave a wry smile, "Funny. But really, one of the first things I said was that I came to save Chris. I realize that Leo here needed to bring the rest of you up to speed on who I am, but it sounded to me like you were about to start talking battle strategy. Uncalled-for. Especially since I'm the only person that can do anything about the little time-bomb your holding, Piper." She spoke lightly, almost as if she didn't care, but her words were dark enough to make Piper pull her baby closer to her.

"What time-bomb? Baby Chris isn't a threat." Leo's eyes looked wild. He still had a lot of rage when it came to people coming after his children.

"You're right. Baby Chris isn't a threat. But there is a threat to him that will tear this family apart if you don't let me help." Thalia let out a slow sigh, "You all better sit down, this is going to take awhile to explain."


	2. Chapter 2- Secrets

Chapter Two- Secrets

"So you stopped it?" Piper watched her sleeping infant with nervous eyes.

"For now, yes. But the spell is not permanent, and there may still be times when things slip through the cracks. He'll have headaches." Thalia's voice was barely above a whisper.

"What do we tell him?" Leo reached into the crib and pulled a blanket over his youngest son. His eyes were full of hurt, but hope as well.

"Nothing. Not until the time comes. Wyatt either for that matter. They can't know even the smallest thing about this." The seriousness of her tone squashed the questioning on Leo's face, but not Piper's.

"Why not? That's a huge secret to have hanging over their heads."

Thalia's dark eyes locked onto Piper's, "Parenting is about secrets, honey." For the first time that day, her voice was sharp and angry, "You don't tell a child everything about the world. You raise them as ignorant as possible to all the bad out there until they're old enough to handle it. It would devastate both of them to have such knowledge too soon. Not to mention it would degrade the stability of my spell. Believe me, they're better not knowing yet."

Piper and Leo nodded in understanding.

"Thank you." Piper gave Thalia a hug before all three left the room.


	3. Chapter 3- Old Enough

**Chapter Three- Old Enough**

**2027  
**

Leo had orbed his sons to a tiny house in a small Georgia town. The neon sign in the front window simply said, "Fortunes Told." Which was enough to make most passersby smile with a feeling of superiority as they laughed at the superstitions of others. For the Halliwells it meant exactly what it said- if the fortune teller was legit. Wyatt and Chris assumed whoever lived there must have been for their father to take them so far from home, and when Leo evaded their questions it made them wonder what was going on. They were met by a petite, dark featured woman at the front door and soon found themselves hurried into the living room and left. Leo and the strange fortune teller told them to wait and exited the room. For a while Wyatt and Chris could hear a quiet but serious sounding conversation going on down the hall, but as time dragged by their patience wore thin.

Wyatt was restless. Chris had a headache. Neither of them wanted to be there. Wyatt stood up from the couch and started pacing the tiny living room. It was cluttered with strange objects lining shelves all along the walls. Wyatt picked up a tiny bone knife from one of the nearest shelves and put it back almost immediately, disinterested. He let out a loud sigh. "Could you just, not?" Chris buried his face in his hands, cringing from the shooting pain behind his eyes.

"Sorry." He muttered in frustration. Chris' headaches were the only time when he had ever felt powerless. No healing seemed to help them. He paced around the room for a few seconds before crossing his arms and rolling his head back, "What is taking them so long?"

"I don't know, man. Just chill out, would you?" Chris' voice came out muffled from behind his hands.

"You've been hanging out with Aunt Paige too much, next you're going to start saying "dude" all the time." Wyatt replied, and it made Chris look up for a moment and smile through the pain before covering his eyes again. Wyatt went back to the couch and sat down. The front door closed down the hall and the dark haired woman walked into the room. Wyatt jumped up again, but she kept walking, straight over to the rocking chair that faced the couch.

"Your brother is right, Wyatt. You really should calm down. Patience is a virtue." She laced her hands together and leaned forward in her chair. It was unclear if she was mocking him, or being serious. Chris looked up again, and Wyatt sat back down looking a little petulant. "Do you two know who I am?" She smiled, her dark eyes sparkling mischievously behind her glasses.

The two brothers looked at each other, but didn't answer. She smiled again, "Maybe if you weren't so distracted." She stood up and walked over to Chris, placing her hands over his ears and whispered what sounded like a chant at his forehead. When she backed away, Chris blinked hard several times.

"It's gone." He sounded shocked, then he grinned from ear to ear.

"How'd you do that?" Wyatt stared at the woman in awe.

"Sorry, but I asked you a question first. Do you know who I am? I'll give you a hint, I'm not a demon, but I made it into the Book of Shadows. Think about the first few pages or so."

They both thought hard for a moment, staring at her. Finally Chris answered, "You're Thalia." He spoke quietly. She looked just like her sketch in the book.

"We have a winner. And what does your book say about me?" She laughed quietly.

Chris and Wyatt shared a look. Wyatt spoke first, "You're immortal, you see the future."

"But not just what's going to happen, you see every possible future, and you know how each could come true."

"Very good. Gold stars for everyone. Does it say anything else?"

"It says when you talk, we should listen." Wyatt's voice was low, all restlessness gone.

"Good advice." She paused for a moment, rocking her chair slowly, "Alright. We've gotten through the preliminaries. It's time to get down to business. Your parents brought you here today out of necessity. I like to keep to myself, but your family has done too much good in the world for me to ignore them in their time of need." Wyatt and Chris looked confused, but said nothing, "You are here, in essence, to learn and I am here to help the two of you through these next few months because I can promise you they will be the hardest times of you lives." She sounded sad, but Wyatt smiled.

"So you're going to show us how to be better fighters? Help us stop some big, bad demon uprising?" He enjoyed stopping evil, it really was what he was best at.

"No." Thalia arched one brow and Wyatt shut up. Chris covered his mouth to hide a chuckle. Wyatt smacked him on the shoulder playfully.

"This is serious, boys. It's time we begin." The Halliwell brothers stood up, and Thalia waved them back down, "When you started Magic School, did you start with practical application or was it lectures?" her new students' faces fell in disappointment, but Thalia smiled. "I know, you believe you're too old for the basics, twenty-five and Chris you're only a month away from twenty-three, right?" Something about her tone held special significance when she said that, "But we have to start with an understanding of the situation, and for that I have to tell you a story. Don't give me that look, this is important. In a way, this story is from my past, but it exists outside of time." This statement got their attention. So Thalia spoke, and they listened.


	4. Chapter 4- Two Brothers

**Chapter Four- Two Brothers**

Storytelling has been considered a lost art, but Thalia came from a time when it was almost sacred. She spoke seriously, in a rhythmic cadence. She painted pictures with her hands and the two listeners leaned in close to hear her hushed voice, "It started with two powerful brothers being born into a family of magic." Her eyes glazed over, lost in the past. In that room filled with objects from all through the ages, listening to an immortal being telling a story from out of time, Wyatt and Chris were captivated. They didn't want to think of the long years they thought must've passed since these events.

"Their parents were strong and protected them well, but there were many that believed the older brother to be too powerful. A threat." The room was dim and warm, but Chris felt goosebumps rise on his arms. Wyatt got a chill. "It wasn't just evil that viewed the boy as dangerous. An Elder named Gideon feared that such power in one person would surely corrupt him, and before the older brother was two years old, Gideon struck. He kidnapped the child and hid him away. He returned to the family and feigned shock at the news of their firstborn's disappearance. He vowed he would help find the child and they believed him. The entire family searched, giving Gideon time to try to kill the boy. And he tried, but the little one's magic was very strong. Months passed with the two of them hidden down in the Underworld, Gideon spending night and day attacking his hostage, looking for a weak point." She paused, shaking her head at the darkness of the story.

"Another Elder named Zola helped the family. He found Gideon and destroyed him. Zola returned the child to his home. The father felt such debt to the elders for saving his son that when they offered him a chance to join them, he took it. But this was not the happy ending it seemed." No one breathed, no one blinked, so enraptured by the story they were.

"The betrayal of Gideon had left its' mark on the older brother. It left him with a deep fear of anyone stronger than himself, and a distrustful nature. As he grew, that fear changed into hatred and a darkness started building in his heart. He saw his family as a threat and eliminated them. Except for his little brother, the only person he did care about. He took over the world, terrorizing the planet and bending it to his will. All the while he kept his brother at his side. But that was not where the younger man wanted to be. You see, throughout his dark life watching the sibling he loved change into such a villain, he never lost hope that it wasn't too late. Miraculously, and against all odds with the horrors he had seen, his heart stayed good. He hid from his brother and plotted a way to save him. He found one. He refused to accept that his brother was born evil, and he knew he wasn't raised to be so. He decided that something must have happened before his own birth to turn his brother evil. He flung himself backwards through time to stop all of it from happening." And at this point, Thalia stopped talking. She looked back and forth between Wyatt and Chris, both leaning forward to hear the rest of the story.

"Did it work?" Chris asked, his voice quiet. Thalia couldn't help but laugh.

"What happened?" Wyatt added, "Seriously, you can't end it there."

Thalia laughed again, "Well, Wyatt I'm afraid I have to, because I must ask a question. Why do you think I told you this story?"

Wyatt's face fell, "'Cause we rely on our magic too much?" It was clear he was guessing.

"And why would you say that?" Thalia tried her best to suppress her smile.

"Well, it's about power not being as important as goodness. The little brother loved his family and that's why he was the hero. Not his magic, but his love and bravery." Wyatt had always been good in school.

"It's interesting that you used the word 'hero' Wyatt. Do you see him as a hero?"

"Yes." Both men relied in unison.

"Did you think that maybe I didn't tell you the story so you could pull out some abstract moral, but rather because you needed to know that these events transpired?" She spoke kindly, but her eyes burned with contained intensity. It was obvious that something desperately important was hidden in her words. Her two students looked at her in confusion, "Do either of you see what I'm driving at?"

"That this is a history class apparently?" Chris couldn't hold back the sarcasm.

"Exactly. A Halliwell history class." Thalia smiled and pulled a folded photograph from her pocket. "Your Aunt Paige took this picture. She was yelled at for it." She handed it to Chris, Wyatt scooted close and looked over his brother's shoulder to get a better look, "She got a lecture about 'future consequences' but she refused to get rid of it."

"So, it's a picture of me and some baby." Chris sounded disappointed, and then confused, "I don't remember this being taken."

"Chris, let me see that!" Wyatt spoke sharply, "Have you never looked at Mom's old photo albums?" His eyes were wide as he stared at the photograph, "See the decorations behind you? That's my first birthday party! That baby is me!"

"What?" Chris snatched the picture back and stared. He looked up at Thalia, his green eyes open wide.

"Now you see why I stopped the story."

"We- we're the story?" Wyatt looked stricken, "But none of that happened."

"The older brother was evil. He took over the world. He killed people." Chris's voice was laced with denial, "Wyatt isn't even capable of that."

"He isn't now. But in a different time stream..."

Wyatt still stared at the photograph, "But Chris wasn't even born when this was taken. Mom wouldn't even have been pregnant, right? That doesn't make sense, why would he go back that far?" He looked to his brother for validation, "That means this has to be fake, right?" Chris shook his head in anger.

"You both need to calm down. I've got no reason to lie to you. The story I told wasn't about you. It's what could have been if that different version of Chris hadn't traveled back in time. Because of that, Gideon was stopped and you both grew up to be very different people than your counterparts."

"Say we believe you, why tell us now? If we didn't know this before, why tell us at all?" Chris asked accusingly, "And by the way, why are you the one telling us? Why not Mom and Dad?"

"If you don't change your tone you'll find yourself missing a tongue." Thalia's voice was an acid whisper, but quickly softened, "Your parents didn't tell you because I told them not to. You couldn't have handled this information growing up. And you're being told now because the repercussions of time-travel are about to affect your lives." Sympathy colored her words, "And I'm afraid I'm the only person that can help you."

"What repercussions." Wyatt asked timidly. People didn't usually scare him but Thalia was different.

"For me to answer that I have to ask you a question first. What happens when your body is close to death?"

"Your soul leaves. Out of body experience." Chris's words came out a little bluntly, but he was struggling to trust Thalia.

"Right, and when the body gets better it calls out and the soul reenters."

"What does that have to do with Chris time-traveling?" Wyatt asked.

"It wasn't me." Chris mumbled.

"Because Chris had an emergency birth. He and Piper almost died. At the same time, let's call him Alternate Chris was protecting you from Gideon's attack. He got stabbed by a cursed athame. Leo couldn't heal it. While this Chris was hovering near death, so was his future self. That Chris died in his father's arms, and within an hour," She turned her eyes to Chris, "you were born." When Chris finally looked back at her, the anger seemed to have faded, "Two versions of the same soul answered their body's call, and joined together seamlessly. You are, after all, the same person as the other Chris."

"What?" Chris and Wyatt spoke in unison again.

"That is so screwed up." Chris held his head as if his headache had returned.

"You asked why I'm telling you now, you asked about the repercussions. I came to your parents a month after Chris's death and birth. I explained to them that I had seen a future full of suffering because of this. One baby with two consciousnesses. The memories of another life fighting against the scattered mind of an infant. You would have grown up completely insane." She saw that Chris did not like what he was hearing. Wyatt just looked uncomfortable and guilty, "I know that this is too much to deal with. But haven't you ever wanted to know why healing powers don't work against your headaches? It's because they aren't a sickness or an injury. They are your other consciousness trying to break out."

"How do we stop it?" Chris asked pleadingly.

"You've come a long way from calling him a hero." The look Thalia gave him was unreadable.

"If he's stuck in my head, if he's going to make me go crazy then he's nothing more than a plague now."

"Hey, it's still you. How can you say that?" Wyatt looked at his brother incredulously.

"You're afraid of him." Thalia stared Chris down as if trying to read something far away, "You've figured out what is going to happen and you don't like it. You don't want to know what he knows."

"What's he figured out?" Wyatt was getting frustrated, and he did not like the look on Chris' face. He'd never seen his brother look that... closed off.

"When I visited you as children, I didn't just warn your parents. I used a spell on Chris. I put the older version of his mind... you could say I put it to sleep. It's still there, but in a back corner, unable to break through."

"You can't get rid of it?" Chris' voice came out flat.

"No. One soul. Two versions. When they came together they became inseparable. Neither versions of your mind can be destroyed without taking the other as well. But there is another way to look at this." She seemed to be bracing herself for something.

"No. Hell no. You can't do that to me." Chris stood up, his fists clenched.

"Wait, what is going on?" Wyatt stood up as well, looking back and forth between the other two.

"Hopefully, Chris will see that this has to happen. He is one person with two separate sets of memories and if he will let me, my goal is to bring the two together. Think of it as a case of multiple personality disorder, and it will only be over when the two halves come together as one whole. He will remember both worlds and, yes, he will be a different person than he is right now. Not quite the troubled young man he was, but not the carefree one he is now either." Wyatt sat down, looking thunderstruck. Chris looked ready to run. "I'm not going to do anything to you without your permission, Chris, so don't look at me like I'm some monster here to destroy you. Please sit down." There was a moment of hesitation, but Chris did as he was told.

"So what now?" Chris stared at the floor, his voice heavy with defeat.

"Now, I think you two need to talk. In a little while your parents and your aunts will tell you the rest of the story. After that, if you want, I have a spell that shows scenes from the past. You can see for yourself the person he was. Maybe that will make this a little less scary" She stood up to leave.

"Wait, can you tell me what happens if we don't do anything? Will he stay put in there?" Chris gestured to his head.

"He won't stay suppressed forever. He will break through, and then you will look back on your headaches like they were good times. With two consciousnesses fighting inside of you, you will lose your mind." She spoke sadly, but defiantly. It was obvious that she wanted him to let her help. She left the room with her head held high. Wyatt jumped up.

"You can't be serious, Chris. You have to let her help." Worry was written in every feature on his face.

"What, and share my brain with a stranger? One who looks at you like you're evil?" His voice was low, but he seemed ready to yell at any moment.

"Didn't you hear her? He's you. It's the same person. And if you hadn't been paying attention, you're already sharing your head with him. Please, Chris, you're my only brother." He didn't say it, but it was clear in his eyes that Wyatt was terrified of losing him.

Chris stood as well, facing down the taller man, "It sounded to me like I'm lost either way. And I can't believe how easily you accepted this! Or do you really think you could be some evil overlord?" Green eyes stared into dark blue. Wyatt faltered first, but recovered quickly.

"I'm just taking this seriously. Any threat to you or the rest of the family is serious. We can't just disregard it because we don't like what we're hearing. If Mom and Dad say this is true, then you bet your ass I'll accept it, but for right now I can't believe you aren't even considering it."

"I'd say that's some pretty sound thinking." Wyatt and Chris turned on the spot to see their parents standing behind the couch. Piper continued, "Although I don't appreciate the language, Wyatt." she chided, but the smile never left her face.

Chris walked over to Leo and Piper, "Is it true?" There was a pleading denial in his eyes.

Piper just hugged him tightly. She couldn't get the words out. Chris looked to his father, "I know how this must sound to you, and you did get a rough break..." His words faded away. Chris backed up, pushing his mother away from him.

"So you knew?" His face was a blank. His voice was hollow.

"Honey, we love you, and Thalia was right. You didn't need this hanging over your head as a child."

"I know it's a lot to deal with, but it was the best option we had." Leo's voice carried two decades of concealed hurt, "I lost him, Chris, he just slipped right through my fingers." his eyes welled up, "I couldn't lose you too. I can't."

Chris looked at his family gathered around him and knew he had to make a choice. Knew that if he didn't right then, no amount of talking would help him make up his mind one way or the other. But he couldn't bring himself to do it, not yet.


	5. Chapter 5- Was He Good

**Chapter Five- Was He Good**

****The family stood in a circle in the cramped living room of the little Georgia house. Phoebe and Paige had orbed in shortly after Piper and Leo.

Chris took a deep breath, "Alright, I'm going to ask one last question before I make a decision." All eyes locked on the twenty-two year old, "Was he good? I mean, from what I hear his intentions were, but... Did he save Wyatt?"

"Yes. He absolutely did." Leo couldn't keep a note of pride from his voice.

"And in doing so, he saved the world." Phoebe put a comforting hand on Chris's elbow. She couldn't reach his shoulder.

"And he saved me." Everyone looked to Paige. "Don't forget that if he hadn't shown up when he did, the Titans would have done worse than turn me to stone."

"And he helped us reconnect in those pocket dimensions. Almost got himself killed doing so." Phoebe chimed in.

"He saved me from being eaten by a dinosaur." Leo added. Everyone stared at him, "And that is too long a story to tell right now."

"He broke up the Stillman sisters when they stole our identities and our powers. Stopped them from killing all three of us." Piper spoke solemnly.

"He rescued Wyatt from the Order when they reversed his morality." Paige hung her head when she said that.

"And that was after we told him we never wanted to see him again. He still helped us." Phoebe covered her mouth, looking like she was about to cry.

"We were so awful to him and he never gave up." Piper hugged her husband tightly.

"We were more than awful to him. I fought so hard to get rid of him." Leo looked down at his wife with eyes full of guilt.

"And he hated you so much at first." Paige said with a sad smile.

"Why did he hate you?" Wyatt asked, and it was as if the older family members had forgotten he and Chris were in the room. Everyone got very quiet.

"Don't stop." Thalia was suddenly in the room again, "You've all kept it bottled up for nearly twenty three years. It's time to let it out. It's time these boys knew."

"It doesn't sound like me at all. He sounds like a superhero." Chris didn't sound comforted.

"Well, it wasn't like he came rushing in and tore down the bad guys." Paige smiled at him reassuringly, "He mostly got beat up... like a lot." The three sisters laughed, "But he usually helped us enough to get things taken care of."

"Yea, how many times did that poor boy get thrown against walls or crash through furniture?" Phoebe hugged Chris as if to protect him from such injuries. Paige laughed.

"Paige! That's really not that funny." Piper gave her sister a scandalized look.

"What? Chris you may not realize it but you are made of rubber, I swear Dude."

Chris couldn't stop a small smile from creeping onto his face. He turned to his father, "Why did you want to get rid of him?"

Leo took a few moments to find the words, "He showed up before your mom was pregnant with you. He couldn't very well have said he was our son. He didn't tell us much of anything at first, and it made us not want to trust him."

Chris furrowed his eyebrows with deep concentration, "So he had to pretend you weren't his family?" Leo nodded, "For how long?"

"Months. If it wasn't for Phoebe having a premonition where Wyatt had a little brother, none of us would have figured it out." Piper's words came out slowly, the way they always did when she got nostalgic.

Chris shook his head slowly, "I suck at lying."

"You never had to learn how. He had a very different life from yours." Phoebe said before the room fell silent.

The quiet lasted a solid few minutes before Thalia spoke, "Chris, I know this is a lot to take in all at once, and I'm not asking for a final answer until you've had more time to think about it, but I need to know where you stand right now."

Chris felt everyone's eyes fall on him. He breathed deep, "It's not like I've got much of a choice. Either you let him out and I deal with it, or I go crazy. I guess... I guess I'll agree to it. Letting him out and fixing this whole mess."

"Are you really sure? Because once we've started you can't change your mind. The more aware you are of this situation, the less my spell will hold up. It hinged on the two aspects of your mind not knowing each other, and I won't be able to fix it when it fails."

Yeah, I'm sure. The answer is easier than I thought it would be. I'm just not sure how it'll work."

Thalia smiled wide, "It starts with knowing the other Chris."

"I thought you just said that was a bad thing? And how is it possible to know him, he's stuck in my head and it's not like I can talk to him." Chris asked with more sarcasm than enthusiasm.

Thalia's eyes flashed with mischief, "Just follow me.


	6. Chapter 6- Slipping

Slipping

The Halliwells followed Thalia into a back room. It was the largest room that Chris had seen so far in the house. The walls were nearly bursting with shelving laden with what were obviously magical items. There were sinister-looking potions ingredients along with ancient books covered with symbols, and along the far wall were what looked like the weapons of conquered demons. Thalia waved her arm haphazardly and a trunk in the corner flew open. She started digging through it enthusiastically, pulling out what seemed like a random assortment of objects, which she then placed on a small, rickety table in the center of the room. No one spoke. After a few more minutes of rustling through the trunk, Thalia straightened up and went to work on the table. She ground what looked like a small stone into powder and threw it into a wooden bowl. She hummed a foreign tune while she continued putting together... whatever it was. "It has to go to work immediately, or the mixture becomes unreliable." She said to no one in particular. She used no recipe, not hesitating once to check her work.

Suddenly Chris's attention was drawn to a strange red crystal, "Where have I seen this before?" He muttered under his breath, before losing interest and starting a whispered conversation with his brother. Paige nudged Phoebe, neither of them had missed the serious look their nephew had given to the fist-sized stone.

Thalia looked up from the dusty mixture she was working on and smiled knowingly, "Yes, a Ronyx crystal. Fate has a funny way of working, doesn't it?"

"What do you mean by that?" Piper asked, with the slightest undertone of amusement.

"It might seem like a long time ago to you, Piper, but I believe you still remember what I told you on my first, well my only, visit to your house?"

Something seemed to dawn on Leo, "You said things would slip through the cracks." His words came out far too calm to match the worried look on his face.

"Don't panic. It's just because the spell is nearing its' end. We still have enough time. Barely, but enough. And I'd like you to know that this isn't the first crack something's slipped through" She gave a knowing smile and then, as if to illustrate called out, "Hey Chris, don't panic but there is a spider under your chair."

The young witch-whitelighter bolted up and lifted the spindly wooden chair, raising one foot and searching for the supposed spider with a fierceness in his eyes, "Don't worry, I'll kill it." He said in a would-be nonchalant tone. After nearly a minute he gave up and sat back down. He seemed to realize that the others had been talking about him, "There wasn't a spider, was there?"

Thalia nodded as if that were proof enough, but Piper wasn't buying it, "So, Chris has always hated spiders. Lots of people do. It's one of the more normal things about him."

"Well, actually..." Phoebe's words came out like air leaking slowly from a balloon, the way they did just before she let out a secret.

"Phoebe? Something you wanna share with the group?" Paige asked suspiciously, arms crossed in front of her.

"Oh," She tried to block the words from coming, but just couldn't, "He doesn't just hate spiders. I can sense it, and it isn't how most people react." Piper raised her eyebrows in a menacing way, forcing Phoebe to continue, "He resents them. He's vindictive towards them."

"What?" Chris sounded almost amused, "C'mon, there's nothing to read into in that." He actually laughed, "Spiders are bad. I kill them when I see them. Wyatt does too and you're not freaking out at him."

"Well, honey, that's 'cause Wyatt's reaction is the typical emotional reaction I sense from most people who see spiders. You react like you want revenge on them. Which, well, makes sense." She started off sweetly, and ended up speaking in the childish manner she reverted to when she felt bad. It was one of her more endearing habits, but Chris wasn't falling for it this time.

"Why. Why does it make sense?" He turned to his parents, repeating himself for emphasis was a nervous habit, "Why does she think that makes sense?"

"Well." Piper started, bending the word into two syllables, "Because. Because you were infected a little- a little bit by a, by a spider demon." She held her thumb and forefinger less than an inch apart to demonstrate what she meant by a 'little bit'.

Paige quickly jumped in before Chris could react, "But it was only for like, what less than a day? So no biggie."

Chris looked at his brother, seeking backup. He wanted to ask if the entire room had lost their minds. Wyatt seemed unable to meet his eyes though. He had had the saddest look of guilt on his face since he'd heard about an evil alternate-world double of himself.

"I think I would remember if I got turned into a demon." He said in his best condescending tone.

"Well, I suppose you didn't, but Whitelighter Chris did. I mean, time-travel Chris. You know what I mean." Paige sounded flustered.

Chris looked ready to say something scathing, but was interrupted by Thalia walking over and plucking a hair from his head, "Ow." He turned to her. It hadn't really hurt, but he was upset, "What the hell was that for?"

Thalia just smiled, clenching the hair in her fist. Whatever magic she used crushed it into dust, which she dropped into the mixture. She wiped off her hands on her jeans and turned to the group, "Alright, if everyone is quite finished arguing, I'd like to get things moving." She gestured for everyone to take a seat, "This is going to take awhile." Once everyone was seated in the mismatched assortment of chairs placed to one side of the table she picked up the wooden bowl full of powders and poured them over the Ronyx stone. She spoke to the stone in a strangely familiar, rolling language and it glowed for a moment before projecting a large screen onto a cleared off section of one wall. Chris and Wyatt's eyes grew wide in on the screen were Aunt Paige and Aunt Phoebe, standing in the attic of the Halliwell Manor. The startling part was how young the two witches looked. The less startling part was that they seemed to be disagreeing.

"This is the day that your family met the time-traveler." Thalia said softly, just before the two on the screen started arguing.

_"Why do I feel like you're making me choose between my sister and my nephew?" Phoebe seemed to be trying to stop Paige from doing something._  
_"Because you're slightly over dramatic?" Arguing had always been useless against any Halliwell sister once they had made up their mind._

Phoebe was watching the screen between her fingers, as if something bad was about to happen. Paige had the same look on her face she used when someone told an embarrassing story about her.

_Suddenly the Paige on screen orbed out, and immediately back to the same place in the attic. Within seconds a strange woman in a toga showed up. There was a lot of movement very fast until a fourth person orbed in, pushing Phoebe out of the way and shouting, "Don't look at her eyes!" He threw several potions at the Titan, who seemed unhurt, but surprised, and left. _  
_The time-traveler stood quickly, helping Phoebe up, "Are you alright?" He stared at her as if she would disappear any second._

"Holy shit." Wyatt stared, shock in his eyes. It really was his brother. He knew that face better than any in the world. The more he watched, the more he believed that this other version of Chris had grown up differently. He moved and spoke the same as Chris, but his eyes had seen dark days. There was also the ease with which he lied about his name. Wyatt's Chris couldn't lie if his life depended on it.

Chris watched with resignation. He had forced himself into accepting the situation, but he still didn't like it. It was harder than he expected to watch his family not knowing him, questioning him even. In the world he had grown up in, they had always been there supporting him.

_As the scenes unfolded, the other Chris tried to rally the rest of the Halliwells together, and seemed to be failing. They clearly didn't want to accept him. He asked his mother for help and she dismissed him, even throwing him against a wall and knocking him out. Even baby Wyatt put his shield up against the "future boy" as the others sarcastically called him._

The thing that Chris didn't understand was that it was obvious that his other version knew them. He knew the house, the trinkets kept on the bookcase in the attic, the Book of Shadows. Little things that the sisters should have noticed, but didn't seem to care about. Chris watched all of these things, knowing that he couldn't have handled going through them himself. He would have broken down and told them who he was, or worse. It was hard just watching, knowing that his alternate version was more of a hero than he'd ever be himself.

His train of thought continued until the very end. A confrontation between the other Chris and Leo. A confrontation that ended in the time-traveler blasting Leo's orbs into what looked like oblivion. Immediately after which, Thalia spoke a word of command to the crystal and it froze on the image.

"So, that was the day they met your counterpart." She said, far too calmly to match the fate-of-the-world battle they had all just witnessed.

"What did he do to Dad's orbs?" Chris asked suspiciously.

"Does it matter? You see your father sitting right here, you heard him speaking of the goodness of that man. What makes you think that that is more important?" Her eyes gleamed with cleverness, she was leading him somewhere with this, but he had not yet caught on.

"It didn't look good. What did he do?" Chris insisted.

"He sent me to Valhalla. The Valkyries kept me prisoner there for a few weeks." Leo tried to minimize it, but it was too late.

"What?" Chris yelled, "He imprisoned you? He imprisoned you, and you still want to bring this guy back?"

"Listen. Leo had threatened to keep a close watch on the situation. That Chris had a lot of secrets that needed to be kept for his mission to be successful. Leo very well could have ruined it. You must remember that in the alternate world good didn't have much of a chance against evil, so good people had to learn to be a little extreme." Chris didn't seem to be agreeing with her explanation, but she kept going, "Have you ever heard 'the ends justify the means'? That was how your other self lived. If he had to do something bad to accomplish something good, he didn't hesitate. His goal was to save the entire world, so if he pissed Leo off a little, he felt it still balanced out in his favor. I know you don't agree, and I'm not saying you should. This is something he believed, and the point of showing you the past is to help you get to know him." Chris was beginning to realize that Thalia was irritatingly hard to argue with. She made sense, but he still didn't like it.

"He just sounded different when everyone was talking about him." Chris looked resolutely at the ground just in front of his feet.

"He stuck around for over a year, kid." Paige said softly.

"And in that year, his family straightened him out. He became much more honest and open, much closer to who you are now." Thalia seemed endlessly patient, "He made a lot of mistakes, and you'll see them, but his intentions were... almost always good." Chris nodded his head, trying to deal with this new information.

"Never meet your heroes." Wyatt's words were barely audible. No one knew what to say after that. Piper announced that it was time she got back to the restaurant, and suddenly everyone remembered places they needed to be. Magic school, checking on the kids, P3, the time for reminiscing had ended.  
Just before Chris and Wyatt left to open the club for the night, Thalia pulled them to one side, "Visits from now on are to be unaccompanied. Just you two. We have a month for you to learn a whole other life, so be here tomorrow morning. Aim for nine o'clock" She pursed her lips in frustrated thought, "Don't be too late."

Once at P3, Chris turned to his brother, "Why would she just assume we'd be late?"

"Well, she does see the future. Maybe something's going to happen." Wyatt didn't seem too bothered by the thought. Now that they were back in familiar surroundings he was having an easier time shrugging off the weight that had settled on his conscience.

"No, I think she'd have the decency to tell us if anything were about to happen." Chris didn't realize how very wrong he was.


	7. Chapter 7- Warning Would've Been Nice

**Chapter Seven- Warning Would've Been Nice**

****The evening was winding down, the band was packing up, and Chris was helping Ian the bartender scoot the last few drunks out. It had been a good night for the club, and he couldn't help but be a little proud. It had been less than a year since Piper had finally relinquished full control of the place to her boys, and despite her worries P3 was still standing.

Just as Chris locked the door and started placing the chairs on the tables for the night, three darklighters orbed in. Right in the center of the dance floor. Ian called out, "Whoa!" when a bottle from the rack above him fell right on his head, knocking him out.

One of the darklighters shot an arrow directly at Chris, who deflected it quickly, "Wyatt, trouble!" He called out. He'd dealt with demons his whole life, and having a nearly invincible big brother on hand, made things a little less scary.

Wyatt orbed in from the back room, their best all-purpose vanquishing potion in hand. He gave it to Chris, who had better aim. While Wyatt lifted one darklighter into the air, Chris chucked the vial of potion at another, dissipating the monster in a whirl of flame. Chris then telekinetically chucked the last darklighter over near his brother to finish off, just when Wyatt had vanquished his first one with a wave of his hand. It was an easy fight, and all three of the assassins were gone within minutes.

"Hold on, Ian's hurt." Chris called out. Wyatt rushed over to the unconscious bartender and healed him.

"Whoa." Ian said again, putting his hand over his head, "Was it just me, or were there a bunch of crazy lights over there." He pointed to the place where the darklighters had orbed in.

"That bottle must've hit you pretty hard." Was all Chris said, looking worried, "Do you think you need to see a doctor?" Chris knew that Wyatt had healed the guy completely, but it helped them keep their cover to suggest normal things like the hospital.

Ian nodded slowly, "Yeah, it doesn't even hurt, you know? But maybe that is a good idea." Wyatt and Chris helped escort the dazed bartender out, before turning to survey the damage.

It had been a quick fight, but it had made a huge mess. The boys knew better than to use a spell to fix it, so they started cleaning.

"Chris?" Wyatt called out as he picked up broken glass by the bar.

"Yeah?" Chris replied, using his telekinesis to pull a darklighter arrow from the wall without touching it.

"Darklighters don't throw whiskey bottles." He looked at his brother with uncertainty.

Chris looked surprised, "No..." He furrowed his brows in deep thought. His words came out very slowly, "I hadn't really thought about that." He looked at his brother with a lost expression, "I did that. I made it drop on his head so he wouldn't see." He seemed to be struggling to get his words together, he sounded like he didn't believe he'd done it, "I knew you would heal him, and I didn't want the darklighters to shoot him. So I knocked him out." His eyes seemed far away.

"Chris." Wyatt sounded shocked and disapproving, "You could've killed him."

"No, the bottle didn't fall from high enough. It wasn't very likely to kill him." Chris shook his head as if he had water in his ears, "I'd done it before I'd really thought about it." finally he appeared to have snapped out of it, "I hurt an innocent. Why the hell did I do that?" He looked at Wyatt with self-loathing on his face.

Wyatt just looked scared. His voice was quiet when he did speak, "The ends justify the means." He looked at his baby brother, all disapproval gone, "Maybe that wasn't you. Maybe it was _him_ slipping through again."

"What? No. Things just happened really fast, and I made a stupid mistake. This is my fault, Wyatt, and I'm not using that as a cop-out."

"Chris, that wasn't like you at all-"

"Wyatt, I'm not arguing about this. I'm not blaming it on him." Chris cut his brother off angrily.

"Why not? Because it sure doesn't seem like you!" Wyatt yelled.

"Because." Chris screamed, and then got very quiet, "Because if I did it in a panic, it's just a mistake. If it was him, if that's the kind of thing he does... that's just not the person I want to be." He looked around at the mess, said a spell to clean it up and then orbed out too quickly for Wyatt to follow.

It took hours for Wyatt to find his brother. He wasn't the pushy type, so usually if Chris wanted to be alone Wyatt left him to it. This particular time, however, Chris was too upset to be by himself. Wyatt tried a few places, but he didn't know where Chris went when he orbed off, so it was taking a while. He tried sensing for him, but with no point of reference it was like shooting blind. He couldn't help but think that Leo would be better for a job like this, but then he would want to help talk to Chris as well and Wyatt didn't want his brother to feel ambushed.

* * *

Chris sat cross-legged on top of the Golden Gate bridge, watching the cars go by below. He tried mentally berating himself for hurting Ian, but couldn't get Wyatt's words out of his head. He felt broken, damaged. He wanted to be angry with himself, but the rage was redirecting to the man who shared his brain. They seemed like such separate people, and he couldn't imagine a day where the two would be one in the same. He started questioning it. He'd been a good person, a good son and brother. He'd been helping stop demons and save innocents since childhood. He'd helped make the world a better place, and this was his reward? Being turned into some callous soldier that had never known a loving family? He knew deep down that if it weren't for the other Chris, that would have been his life too, and he was thankful to the guy for all he'd done. He really was, he just couldn't help but find the situation unfair.

* * *

Wyatt paced, trying to relax. He had returned to the club to have a quiet place to think. He knew if he was very calm he could reach out mentally and find Chris anywhere on Earth, but it was the calm part that was eluding him. He was one of the most powerful beings in existence, and he couldn't help his own family. He truly believed it was his fault that any of this had happened. He knew that childhood trauma could make anyone unstable, but the other Chris had had just as traumatic a childhood as the evil Wyatt, right? He'd lost everything, and he stayed good. So Wyatt couldn't help but believe that there was some flaw in his own character that had allowed for his turning evil. If he had been stronger, not magically but emotionally, then Chris wouldn't be going through such rough times. When he reached this point in his thought process he stopped pacing. Blame wasn't going to fix anything. He took a deep breath and forced himself to be calm. He closed his eyes and sensed for Chris. He found him.

* * *

Chris's mental self-flagellation was interrupted by Wyatt's sudden appearance. "It's not like you to chase me down." He didn't bother moving from his seated position. He didn't even make eye contact.

"I don't usually have to chase you down." The oldest Halliwell boy said, shuffling his feet.

The two of them stayed there, not moving or talking for almost an hour before Wyatt spoke, "You know I'm always here for you."

Chris's eyes didn't leave the rushing tail lights below, "I know."

After a few more minutes of silence Wyatt looked at Chris and asked, "So, why this place?"

Chris finally looked at his brother, "I don't know. I've just always been able to think up here." And that was it. They started talking, laughing even. They began a silly conversation about their high school years and the girls they had chased. Guy talk with little substance. They carefully avoided anything too serious because they had had too much seriousness that day. After a little while Chris couldn't hold back a yawn. They looked around and noticed that the horizon was pale, sunrise was about to start.

"I'd say it's about time to head home." Wyatt stretched his arms out tiredly.

Chris just smiled in agreement and the two orbed home. They found their Aunt Paige in the kitchen, wearing her Magic School teacher's robe. "Hey." Chris said, unsurprised. Paige had her own house, but she could've fooled the neighbors with the amount of time she spent at the manor.

"Sorry, my coffeemaker is broken" She said in a groggy voice.

"Ah." Chris laughed.

"Why so early though, classes don't... start for a few hours, right?" Wyatt asked, pausing in the middle for a huge yawn.

"Field trip." She said it like a swear word, "Visiting the wood nymphs. Too many people and not enough teleportation powers to go around, so it's a bus trip." She squinted her eyes as if plotting vengeance. Paige was not a morning person. She looked back at her nephews as if realizing something, "But why are you two up so early?"

"Really it's 'out so late'" Chris tried joking, but his youngest aunt wasn't having it.

"That still leaves a question to be answered." She seemed to emphasize every word. No one had a speaking pattern quite like Paige.

"It's a long story, but we handled it." Wyatt said, saving them from explaining what had really taken place.

"Yeah, and it's been a long night, so have fun with the wood nymphs." Chris dodged a flying sugar packet on his way out of the kitchen.

"Dang it, I almost got him." He heard Paige grumble as he and Wyatt went upstairs.

Chris didn't even bother with pajamas. He fell into bed and was asleep almost immediately. He would've slept until late in the afternoon if Phoebe hadn't woken him up.

"Hey!" She called out in a voice far too commanding for a woman so small, "It's the middle of the day, young man, and if I can't sleep in then you can't either."

He sat up, rubbing sleep from his eyes and cursing the fact that no one in his family was a morning person. He looked at his alarm and it read ten o'clock. He felt like ice cubes had just dropped into his stomach. He was late for his meeting with Thalia. Something about her presence made the thought of upsetting her very intimidating. Then the ice cubes turned to coals when he realized: she knew he'd be late. She must've known about the darklighters and the bartender, "Some warning would've been nice." even alone in his room he was sarcastic.  
He threw on some clothes and went to Wyatt's room. Phoebe had woken him up as well, "What's Aunt Phoebe doing here? Mom's at work, right?"

"Yeah, she had a premonition about some Brute demon attacking some guy tonight. She's checking the book for a vanquishing potion." Wyatt groaned as he tried to stretch the sleep out of his arms and legs. Suddenly his face looked serious, "What time were we supposed to be there?" Wyatt asked.

"Just over an hour ago."

"Damn."

"Yep."


	8. Chapter 8- Judgement

**Chapter Eight- Judgement**

****The two orbed into Thalia's living room only to see her, arms crossed and hips cocked to one side. Her dark eyes glittered behind her glasses. She stood only a few feet away, facing exactly where the boys had orbed and looking ready to spit venom. Being raised with such a strong mother and aunts, Wyatt and Chris never could shake their fear of an angry woman. They both looked at the ground, such big, tall guys cowering in front of Thalia's five-foot-three rage.

"So. Late night?" Her words held an undercurrent of anger.

"Yes, ma'am." Both Halliwells said as respectfully as they could. Chris looked up first. He saw the beginnings of a smile playing at the edge of Thalia's lips.

"We're very sorry." He said, not bothering with an explanation. His mother had always said that explanations were a longer word for excuse. Thalia must've agreed because she nodded slightly to accept his apology.

Her stance took on a less imposing manner, but her arms stayed crossed, "Are you two ready for today's session?" She seemed to have forgiven them. Chris heard Wyatt release a sigh of relief next to him. Thalia heard it too and let out a small huff of indignation, but she gave them a little smile and started walking to the magic room. They followed in silence. There were less chairs than the day before, just enough for the three of them. The Ronyx crystal sat on the table, still projecting the frozen image of Chris sitting on the front steps of the Halliwell manor just after sending his father to Valhalla. Before Thalia brought up the next vision of the past she spoke to Chris and Wyatt, "You may be wondering why I asked both of you to come here, instead of just Chris."

"Actually, yeah, I was." Wyatt spoke softly, still trying his best to be polite after showing up so late.

"It is a valid question. In truth, Chris, you are the only person that really needs this, but the transition will be easier if your brother understands the full situation. Wyatt," She looked at him very intently, her ancient eyes boring into him, "When the past Chris does emerge, he will not know you. Not as you are now. If you know him a little, if you take your time with him, it will ease the amount of pressure that he has to deal with. Your evil twin," She smiled darkly at the term, "Caused him immense pain and suffering, don't forget that. It is equally important that you not forget that he loved his brother as much as this Chris loves you, and he never gave up, never stopped hoping that he could fix it. Him meeting you, a good you, an understanding and thankful you, will take a tremendous amount of strain off of this entire process. He will want to get to know you, and that is why we need you here. To support your brother as he learns about his counterpart, and to help the other Chris adjust to this world." After she said that she rubbed her hands together and grinned brightly, "Are we all ready?"

Wyatt and Chris nodded. She gave the crystal a command in the same rhythmic language she had used before, and the scene suddenly changed. The new image was several weeks after the time-traveler had passed himself off as a whitelighter.

After spending a few uncomfortable minutes watching the other Chris's encounter with a Valkyrie in the attic, it became very apparent that his intent had been for Leo to remain in captivity until after baby Wyatt had been saved. The present-day Chris made a face and was about to start asking questions when Thalia shushed him, "We'll talk when it's over." she said in a kind whisper.

_From then on it was just watching the other Chris trying to get the Charmed ones to focus on demon hunting. They seemed to like him, but they certainly didn't listen to him or respect him. They benevolently brushed him off after taking out the Trok demon, and then turned their attention to Leo and Piper. The news came out of Leo's disappearance, and this was when it got creepy for Wyatt and Chris to watch, because the lies came flowing out so easily from the time-traveler. He played off looking worried and sad, completely convincing Phoebe and Paige that he had kept this information for their own good, nearly winning them over to the idea of not even searching for Leo. _

_Over the next half hour they watched the sisters save Leo from Valhalla, and then turn right around to save Piper from remaining a Valkyrie. Things got disturbing when Leo threw Chris into a cage and viciously attacked him, nearly cutting off his own son's head._

Finally it seemed like the ordeal was over, and Thalia froze the screen on the other Chris picking up pieces of destroyed furniture in the living room, destroyed by Leo throwing him into it.

Chris and Wyatt stood up, as if it was over. With just a look, Thalia made it clear that they were wrong and they sat back down, "I have one more thing to show you. I saved it for the end so that you could see how things turned out, instead of storming away halfway through." She looked very determined, "Chris I need you to promise me that you will watch this scene all the way through and participate in the discussion afterward." Her tone reminded him of every school teacher that he'd ever gotten in trouble with.

He thought about it, knowing that whatever his alternate version had done must've been horrible to be separated out and given it's own disclaimer, "Yeah. If you think I need to know it, I'll watch it."

Thalia gave him an approving smile, but there was sadness in her eyes. She spoke to the crystal again, and this time they head gunshots.

_A cop fell down, shot in a sewer. As he lay, breath coming in short gasps, a vertical whirlpool appeared and a stunning woman stepped out. She looked wild, as all Valkyries did, but spoke in a comforting voice to the wounded officer on the ground, "It's alright, you don't have to be afraid." She smiled down at him, "You're a brave warrior, I'll take care of you." She watched him dying with delight._

_Several feet away, white orbs appeared, revealing 'Chris Perry', "I don't think so, Leysa. Not this time." His eyes seemed hopeless and sad._

_"What are you doing here?" The Valkyrie looked scared._

_"My plans have changed, unfortunately. The witches, they found Leo sooner than I would have liked." His voice sounded strange, and a little cold._

_"That's not my problem. We kept our end of the deal." She looked ready to fight._

_"I know... and I'm forever grateful, but I can't risk them finding out what I'm up to." _

Wyatt leaned forward in his chair, he'd never seen his brother behave like this. He had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

_"I'm truly sorry." And he looked it, but he raised one hand and twisted it into a fist._

_Leysa gasped for air, clutching at her heart. As she fell, the supposed whitelighter didn't blink, he stared at her with an empty expression, holding his fist until she died on the sewer floor. He walked over to her, grasping her magical pendant._

_Before he removed it, emotion started creeping back into his eyes, "Forgive me." He said with a thick voice. Once he'd removed the pendant, the Valkyrie dissipated. He began to look torn, but went over to the fallen cop. _

_He knelt down and held his hand the same way he'd done with Leysa. He looked at the officer and seemed to change his mind. He picked up the radio and called in to the station that there was an officer down. He then stood and turned to leave._

Thalia froze the display. Chris buried his head in his hands. Wyatt sat very still, a mutinous look in his eyes.

"He killed her. He just stood there and murdered her." Chris's voice was muffled, but it sounded like he was fighting back tears.

"Why would you show us that?" Wyatt asked, too shocked to muster anger into his words.

"Because it happened. Because that was how far he felt he needed to go to save everyone. He didn't want to, that much was obvious, but he decided it was for the greater good."

"How'd he do it?" Chris suddenly looked up, green eyes shining, "I can't do that. how does he have a power I don't?" a tiny glint of hope was on his face, "That means we aren't the same, right?"

Thalia shook her head slowly, "No, Chris. He used telekinesis. He had the same powers as you, but he'd had to learn more effective ways to use them in a fight. He'd spent most of his life fighting to survive, so he had a few more tricks up his sleeve than you do." The room was silent, "Go ahead, talk about it. Yell if you have to."

"I don't want to yell." Chris looked much more ready to run.

"I do. How the hell do you expect us to deal with this?" Wyatt stood up, breathing heavily, "That was not my brother. Chris isn't a murderer." He stepped towards Thalia as if preparing for a heated argument. His accusation was clear; he didn't believe she'd shown them the truth.

"What would be the point of me lying to you?" She asked, her voice sinisterly quiet. She raised her hand and Wyatt lifted up slowly in the air. With a flick of her wrist he was placed forcefully but safely back in his seat, "I haven't lived through millennia to play mind games with children." She stepped forward and the room seemed to shrink with the force of her words, but she never yelled, "The crystal only shows true events. If I could, I'd show you the future that never happened, the person you could have been, the reason that Chris became what he was." Wyatt blinked rapidly, but couldn't look away.

Thalia crossed her arms and looked at the ground, composing herself, "I'm sorry. I'm just not used to people arguing with me." She sat down, kicking her feet and looking very young, "I find myself in a difficult position." She looked from one brother to the other, "I saw that future, I watched the events unfold and how hard life was. When I watch these... memories, I feel bad for that man. You may not think of him as Chris, and at first they do seem very different, but he did these things to save his family. He did it to save the entire world. He had a lot of anger in his heart, but his intentions were good. Never forget that. He wasn't perfect, not even close, but if your parents can forgive him, can't you at least postpone judgement a little while longer?"

Chris nodded his head, "Alright. No judgement... not yet." He glanced at his brother, who still looked upset, "To save my family, I'd probably make some bad decisions too." He nodded his head again, as if he was trying to convince himself of his words, "Are we done for today?" She simply smiled and gestured towards the door.

Wyatt and Chris stood and were about to leave when Chris turned for one last question, "By the way, did you know about the darklighters?"

She thought about her answer before giving it, "Yes. All I can say for now is that you should stay on guard. You haven't seen the end of this particular threat." She stood up, "If things stay on their present course I may have to intervene, but you should know that I do not like having to do that." She gave them what was fast becoming a familiar mischievous grin, "I prefer to keep the fight fair."

Chris and Wyatt looked at each other in confusion, but didn't say anything.

"Be here tomorrow at nine." Thalia waved goodbye, and they orbed out. She let out a sigh, "Alright, show yourself." She sounded bored.

He was short for a demon, with oily brown hair and a face scarred from all of the fights he'd lost. From his mousy stature and ragged clothes it was wildly apparent that he was a low-level demon. The fear in his eyes showed that he was not there of his own free will, but sent by someone else.

Thalia looked at him with disdain. She waved her hand and he burst into flames, vanquished before he could speak, "Why do demons think they need to send messages to someone that sees the future?" She asked the dust that was left of her visitor, "I don't make deals with demons, how many times do I have to say it?" She vented to no one in particular as she went to find a broom and dustpan.

She had seen how bad things were about to get, and they were running out of time.


	9. Chapter 9- This Changes Things

**Chapter Nine- This Changes Things**

****Chris and Wyatt had gotten up early to be certain they'd be on time for their meeting with Thalia. This left them standing in the kitchen, drinking coffee with half an hour before they had to leave. Piper walked into the room, smiling serenely.

"What's this?" She noticed the less-than-chipper looks on her sons faces, "Everything okay?" She started to look suspicious.

"Yeah." Wyatt and Chris said together, neither sounding convincing.

"You can't lie to me, boys. What's the matter?" Piper kept her tone peppy, but she looked concerned.

"We're just... we're about to head over to Thalia's." Chris said, looking far too interested with his coffee cup.

"Oh." Understanding lit up Piper's face, "Not going too well, I guess."

"Not at all." Wyatt looked at his mother like a lost puppy, "We just can't agree with the things he did."

"Well, honey, neither can I." She sounded very matter-of-fact. This got Chris and Wyatt's attention.

"What? What happened to thinking he was some kind of hero?" Chris asked, trying not to sound accusatory.

"He was." She said very simply, "When he first showed up he did a lot of things I will never be able to agree with, but as time passed, the more he opened up, the better his decision making got, and you need to see that." Her brown eyes always seemed to see right through to what was bothering them, "It's gonna suck, and you're gonna hate him so much at some points, but he had his reasons. I promise you he redeemed himself before the end."

There was a loud and complicated knock on the door, followed by the sound of it opening. Piper smiled as if she expected this, which she did. It was the very specific knock that Phoebe's middle child, Parker, used to announce their entry into the house.

"That would be your cousins." Piper said, smiling in preparation for the increased noise level Phoebe's children always brought with them.

"Any particular reason they're here?" Chris asked. It was not uncommon for one or two of their cousins to stop by, particularly P.J., to use the Book of Shadows, but for the entire family to show up without a big event going on was unusual.

"Well, first it was darklighters at the club and then Phoebe and me had a bit of trouble with that Brute demon yesterday. He was clearly working for someone, and you know your Aunt. She got a bad feeling so we're going out again to see what we can find out about whoever sent these guys in the first place. It's starting to look like something really big is stirring up. Actually" She turned to Wyatt, "She was pretty serious about having you watch the girls while we're out. Just in case."

"Really? Babysitting? Don't you think they're old enough to take care of themselves? Peyton, maybe, she's only thirteen, but P.J.'s twenty years old, Mom." Wyatt looked at his mother with disbelief. She held her hands up, waving his complaints off.

"You don't have to tell me, but if there is something big about to happen, it's good for all of you to be together. Gathering the troops and all that jazz. Besides, it's been too long since you hung out with all of the cousins." Piper spoke casually, but with just enough force for Wyatt to know there was no use arguing.

"Wait, all the cousins?" Chris looked a little frustrated.

"Yeah, did I not mention that Paige's kids are coming over too?" Piper said a little too innocently, "And since your Uncle Henry has to be at work, and Uncle Coop is beaming us to the Underworld, you'll be in charge, Wyatt."

"Why can't Uncle Coop help me here and Aunt Paige orb you to the underworld? Power of Three and all." Wyatt tried, fear in his voice. Demons he could face. Teenage cousins, not so much. Not all at once at least. Already he could hear the clamor of way too many very loud personalities filling the living room.

"Paige is at Magic School, you know that she grades papers on Saturday. We'll just call her if we need her." Piper smiled, knowing she'd won. She'd been a Charmed One for long enough to know how to handle any situation.

Chris looked at his watch, "You have fun with that." He gave Wyatt a mocking smile, "I have to go to Thalia's." And he orbed away, leaving a slightly frazzled Wyatt to deal with the entire Halliwell clan, unsupervised by parents.

He was a few minutes early when he landed in the unusually bright little living room. The curtains that he had only ever seen closed, were pulled all the way open and the powerful Georgia sun beamed in. It made the room seem less austere, almost welcoming. He walked around the room, calling out once for Thalia, but she didn't appear to be home. He decided it would be rude to be in her house while she wasn't and stepped out onto the front porch.

There she was, sitting in a white sundress on a wide, wooden porch swing, smoking a cigarette, "Those things are bad for you." Chris said, as a way of announcing his presence.

She looked at him and rolled her eyes, "Not like they can kill me, I can't die." She almost looked bitter, but quickly masked it with a smile, "You're early today."

"Yeah, things were getting a little crazy at home." Chris leaned against the porch railing.

"You feeling any better than yesterday?" Her whole demeanor was different, more relaxed and conversational. For the first time she didn't seem like a teacher or a therapist.

"Surprisingly, yeah. My mom talked to me a little and I'm gonna give him more of a chance before I freak out too much. You were right, if they can forgive him I at least need to wait and see why."

Thalia's bright smile grew broader, "That's good to hear." After a moment she let out a guilty laugh, "I don't think Wyatt's going to forgive me any time soon, though." Chris couldn't help but laugh as well.

"I don't think he's mad at you, specifically. He's just having a hard time dealing." Chris smiled to himself, "He's used to things being pretty black and white, and right now it's all kinda grey."

"You're used to black and white as well though." Thalia looked at him with an expression of deep thought.

"I guess. I don't know, maybe it's just because the stakes are higher for me than they are for him. I kind of have to try harder." A soft breeze kicked up the flowery smell of the crape myrtle tree in the front yard. The place that had felt so sinister just a day before was now peaceful and warm. The past few days had been one awful thing after another, and it was nice to just enjoy something as simple as the weather for once.

"It's about time we got started." Thalia said, but she didn't sound very enthused about going inside either. She tossed the remains of her cigarette into a glass ashtray and hopped off of the swing.

Chris noticed with a smile that she was barefoot. He'd grown up in the city, and being barefoot outside was just not smart. He looked around, there was a small main street that intersected with Thalia's road about a block away and plenty of houses around, but this was definitely the country.

"Are you coming?" Thalia was holding the front door open for him. Chris hurried inside.

Once they made it to the magic room, the mood changed again. It had no windows, so there would be no cheery sunshine to make watching the past any better. Thalia noticed Chris's hesitance as he sat down, "Don't worry. What I'm showing you today is really not upsetting at all. This is one of the days that things were good. Relatively speaking."

With that said, Chris breathed out heavily, feeling like a weight had been lifted off of him. He didn't have to watch himself doing evil, and that made the whole day better. He just wished Wyatt could be there to see it too.

And it was certainly an interesting day that he'd never heard about before. Three blonde sisters were set on stealing the Book of Shadows by stealing the lives of the Charmed Ones.

* * *

As Chris and Thalia watched the Stillman sisters' last hurrah, Piper, Phoebe and Coop were in the Underworld. The Brute demon had made a rather nasty statement about a "mighty storm brewing" and Brute demons were not known for their eloquence. This had made Phoebe think that he had copied the words from whoever had sent him. It certainly held an ominous foreboding.

Piper had a scavenger demon frozen in place, except for his head. "Now, listen up, Mister." Piper spoke like he was a child getting in trouble, but the look in her eyes was unmistakably more lethal, "Something big is going on down here, and I want to know anything you've heard."

The demon whimpered pitifully, "What do you want from me, no one tells me anything, I swear."

"Who's going after the Charmed Ones?" Phoebe asked impatiently, she had always hated being in the Underworld.

"Oh." The demon seemed to rethink the situation. His voice turned to oil as he tried to save his skin, "Oh, the Charmed Ones. You, ah, you didn't say that was who you are." Piper gave him a disbelieving look and held her hands up as if to blast him into pieces, "Wait, wait, wait! I've heard, I swear I've heard some things!"

"Well then get on with it. What do you know?" Piper never did have much patience with evil.

"Markus! You're looking for Markus!" He nearly screamed, his eyes never leaving Piper's raised hands, "He's the ringleader of a big band of darklighters, and he's been running his mouth off all over the place about working with somebody." He broke into a wheezy coughing fit before he could continue, "I swear that's all I know! He hasn't told a soul who he's teamed up with, but it has to be somebody important, 'cuz no one would go up against you guys. They wanna take you all out, you, you're kids, you're husbands. Markus says that this time next month you'll all be dead. It's like the start of a revolution, or somethin'. They're gettin' everybody involved." The demon's sickly pale eyes flitted back and forth between Piper and Phoebe, as if looking for an escape.

"You think he's telling the truth?" Piper asked Phoebe and Coop.

"I think so. He doesn't look brave enough to lie to our faces." Phoebe said coldly.

"No, I'm not brave at all. I ain't stupid either. Please, I told you everything." He looked close to tears.

"Are you going to let him go?" Coop asked Piper.

Her answer came in the form of the Scavenger demon exploding. She looked turned to Coop, "If he spilled his guts to us, what would stop him from telling Markus we're on his trail?"

Phoebe raised her eyebrows in agreement, "One less demon to worry about."

* * *

Chris was dumbstruck. The Stillman sisters had just stolen the Charmed ones powers, and things were not looking good. It was the funniest thing Thalia had shown him so far, but he was disappointed to see that the other Chris had fallen for the identity spell. He should have at least known that their behavior was not normal. Then things just got uncomfortable.

_Piper, with a little help from Paige, had successfully pissed off the oldest Stillman sister, Mabel, causing her to lose control of her powers. The Halliwell sisters took the opening and ran up to the attic for weapons. When the Stillman witches got up there, Mabel froze all three Not-so-Charmed Ones. Chris orbed in immediately after._

_"You did it." A sly smile came over his face, "Nice work, Babe." He walked over to the witch pretending to be Phoebe. She held her arms open for him and they kissed in a way no relatives should kiss._

Thalia put a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing at Chris's panicked reaction, "Didn't he think she was Phoebe?"

_"This. is not. Fair!" Margo squealed as her sister made out with the young whitelighter, "First, I get ripped off in the power department." Mitzy and Chris separated, Chris looking wary, "Then, you bag the bartender, and the boyfriend lays diamonds on you." Margo couldn't hold back her frustration, and Mitzy was forced to feel it too through her stolen empathy powers, but Margo wasn't quite done, "That whitelighter belongs to me." _

_Chris looked a little scared, as Margo pointed at him angrily._

_"Oh, my head!" Mitzy whined, "You know, you really need to learn to control your emotions." She primped her hair confidently, "I can't help it that Chris chose me."_

_Margo looked vicious, "Did you sleep with him?"_

_"No." "Yes."_

_Mitzy and Chris gave opposing answers, and the three criminal witches started arguing impressively. With a few pointed comments from Chris egging them on, it wasn't long before the triquetra on the book started to glow. Chris seemed to be watching for it, and stepped in to escalate the discord even more._

_"You know what, come on, Baby, let's go." Chris grabbed Mitzy's hand, "Who needs them?"_

_"You're not going anywhere, we gotta stick together or our plan falls apart." Mabel grabbed Mitzy's arm._

_"See, there you go. Bossing again." Margo snipped at her big sister, "Just let the little Chippy run off if that's what she wants."_

_That was the final straw, and the three started a shoving match. The glowing triquetra began to shake and the light fixture above fell from the ceiling. The symbol on the book tore apart and stopped glowing._

_The three Halliwell sisters came unfrozen, the the Stillmans stood in shock._

_"You should be able to handle these women now." Chris said to his mother, pointing at the Stillmans._

_It took just one punch by each Charmed One to knock out the blondes. _

_"I take it this was all your doing." Paige spoke to Chris pointedly._

_"Hey, you're the one that got me here." But he looked a little pleased with himself._

_"How did you know they weren't us?" Piper asked._

_"Well in all my life I've never seen you take the bait, the way that witch took it from you."_

_Phoebe looked thoughtful for a moment, "In all your life? But you've only been our whitelighter for two months."_

_Chris didn't look too worried, but changed the subject anyway, "Let's just reverse the magic." and handed them the Book of Shadows to call their powers back._

Just as Chris was thinking that it was nice to see his family trusting him, the next vision came on the screen. It was a short interaction between Leo and the time-traveler. It was terse, bitter even. Leo swore that he would find proof of who had sent him to Valhalla, and he made it fairly clear that he knew it was Chris.

Thalia froze the screen, "So, now that you've seen him save your mother and aunts from being murdered, have you started to forgive him yet?" She looked very interested in what he had to say.

"Well," Chris chose his words carefully, "It was pretty quick thinking on his part, and I can't say I don't like him more for it." He paused, thinking, "But it doesn't undo the bad he'd done. He'll have to do a little more for me to feel like he's really redeemed himself, but this was a start."

Thalia seemed very pleased with his answer, but before she replied to him her eyes glazed over and her face went blank. She absolutely froze.

"Hello? Thalia?" Chris ran over to her, but was afraid to touch her in case it was some sort of spell.

She came out of it as quickly as she'd gone under. She blinked and saw Chris kneeling right next to her, "What are you doing?" She asked him, as if he were the crazy one.

"Excuse me? You just completely spaced out, I was trying to see if you were alright." Chris sounded a little offended.

She looked at him with worry, "No, I'm fine." he didn't believe her, "Chris, a decision has been made that changes the future massively." She frowned, "When the future changes, I get a vision. That's all that was" she sighed with disappointment, "I'm going to have to step in now."

"What's going on? What changed that you have to step in now?" Chris asked.

Thalia smiled, but it didn't look genuine, "You know I can't tell you, Chris. So unless you have any questions about what we just watched together, I think it's about time to head out. Be here the same time tomorrow." She tried to sound like she wasn't concerned about something, but couldn't manage it.

Chris gave up on trying to get any information, so he stood to leave.

"By the way, you'll want to keep that ankle elevated." Thalia called out, just as he orbed away.

Before he had time to think about what that meant, he reappeared in his living room, just as two of his cousins were tackling their brother. Chris had orbed right in the line of attack, and all four of them ended up in a dog-pile on the floor. On the way down, Henry Jr. Chris's only male cousin, landed on his ankle, pushing it far beyond it's normal range of motion.

He couldn't help but call Thalia a very bad word under his breath as he limped into the kitchen to get a bag of frozen peas for his twisted ankle.

* * *

Phoebe was filling Paige in on their new information about what was looking like a pretty major upcoming battle, while Piper flipped through the Book of Shadows to see if Markus had an entry.

"Found him." She called out, and her sisters came rushing over.

"What's it say?" Paige asked, almost managing not to sound worried.

"Oh," Piper looked shocked, "Nothing good." All three sisters cringed at what the Book had to say about the darklighter Markus.


	10. Chapter 10- Before the Storm

**Chapter Ten- Before the Storm**

****"Markus" Paige read aloud, "A Darklighter and leader of a particularly vicious underworld cult called the Enders. Unlike most Darklighters, Markus does not focus on killing Whitelighters, but instead makes them watch as he kills their charges. Considered mentally unstable, and rightfully so, Markus carries an assortment of knives for the slow torture and eventually slaying of whitelighter charges. A somewhat manic personality, Markus has no trouble banding other Darklighters together when it suits his purpose. Although cunning, he has been known to make foolish mistakes when his temper gets the better of him. Avoid if possible."

The picture was small, pushed into the corner by the large script and long paragraph of the page's author, but Markus looked as unpleasant as he sounded, "Well, isn't that cheery. Avoid if possible? Doesn't that just go without saying for darklighters in general?" Paige turned and started pacing the attic, hands on her hips.

"This is wrong." Phoebe leaned over and placed her head on the podium next to the Book of Shadows, "It doesn't say anything about him working with demons, just other darklighters."

"And it says he's the leader-type." Piper added, "they don't usually like to work with others, unless it's someone powerful enough to make it worth their while." She was clearly thinking hard.

"And they'd either have to be strong enough to scare him, or slick enough to sweet talk him." Paige kicked at the rug irritably.

"Or both." Phoebe said, sudden inspiration lighting up her face.

"You think you know who it is?" Paige asked, a little surprised.

"No, but I think I know how to find out." She smiled and ran out of the room and down the stairs.

"Alrighty then, good talk." Paige looked at Piper, who just shook her head and laughed.

* * *

The day passed quickly, family members dispersing as the hours passed. By the time Chris and Wyatt went to open P3 for the night, everyone had gone their separate ways leaving just Piper and Leo at the manor.

"So." Wyatt started, looking as if he were thinking very hard before choosing his words, "How's your ankle."

Chris looked at his brother with a crooked smile, "Better, I kept it elevated for a little while."

"Is there some joke I'm not getting?" Wyatt looked too nervous to laugh.

"No. Absolutely not." But he was still smiling, "It's just really frustrating dealing with someone that sees the future."

"Oh." Wyatt seemed to be holding his tongue on the matter, "So things went well today?" His tone sounded intentionally too lighthearted.

"Yeah. It was actually pretty cool today." Chris wanted to make his brother feel better, "I watched him save Mom, Phoebe and Paige. They were all about to get killed and, he saved them."

"Aunt." Wyatt said, very quietly.

"What?"

"Aunt Phoebe, Aunt Paige." He overemphasized the 'Aunt' part, Chris gave him a look of utter confusion, "It's just, you've always said Aunt." Wyatt looked away.

"Is something wrong? I know you were upset about the Valkyrie yesterday, and so was I, but-"

"It's not that." Wyatt cut him off.

"Well then, what is it?" Chris never had to work this hard to know what Wyatt was thinking.

"It's just..." He trailed off, but then seemed to rethink it, "It's just that we've done this for three days. That's it. Three days, and on the very first day you hurt an innocent. That is something I never thought you would do, and after watching this other guy, this other you, after watching him once you were hurting people."

"You make it sound like I went on a killing spree." Chris tried to lighten the mood, but Wyatt wasn't having it.

"Chris, it just makes me wonder. It just seems like that's an awfully big something to slip through the cracks." Chris looked ready to argue, but he pressed on, "It made me wonder, and then seeing the thing with the Valkyrie. He was a fighter, Chris, you saw it. What if he's stronger than you?" From the desperation in his eyes, this was the point he'd been wanting to make all day.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Thalia said that it would be one person with two memories, right? I thought it'd still be you, maybe a little different, but what if he's stronger? We've both seen it, he's not like you. At all. He's a liar and manipulative and dangerous."

"What are you driving at?" Chris knew already, but wanted to hear Wyatt say it.

"When Thalia puts the two memories together, who's to say it won't be him that we're left with?"

"It won't be." Chris sounded certain, but Wyatt didn't look reassured, "Listen, me and him are the same person. The only difference is how we grew up. It's our memories that make us different, and when this is all over... I can't promise you that I will be exactly as I am now, but I won't be him. It'll be somewhere in the middle." Wyatt still looked less-than-pleased, "I _can_ promise that I'll still be your brother, so you'll just have to deal with it." He did the tiny head-nod their mother always used when she felt she'd had the final say in an argument. It was this that made Wyatt smile.

* * *

The morning came too quickly, and with it was another visit to Georgia. With the news about Markus, the Charmed Ones brought all of their children to the manor again, but Wyatt was able to convince his mother that Henry, Paige's mortal husband, could keep an eye on things.  
"If they need us, we're just an orb away." He said as reassuringly as he could. Piper squinted her eyes at him thoughtfully, but he knew he'd won.

Piper rolled her eyes at the triumphant look on her oldest son's face, "Alright, well get going then." And they left.

They landed in Thalia's living room to see her sitting in her rocking chair, waiting for them, "Oh, good!" She seemed genuinely pleased to see them, "You're right on time, sit down." Something had put her in a very good mood, and Chris and Wyatt had never seen her so chipper.

"You knew we'd be on time, though." Chris said as if he had missed something.

"Doesn't mean I can't be pleased to see you both." Thalia said brightly.

Chris and Wyatt sat on the couch, "Any reason we're out here instead of the magic room?" Wyatt asked, his voice very polite. The last time he had spoken to Thalia had not been too pleasant.

"Yes, actually, and a good one." She finally toned down her peppiness a bit, "For expedience, we will only be watching instances where Chris played a major role in events. That way we don't have to watch an entire year's worth of demon fighting and personal drama. I'll give you the short version of things out here, but there was one more reason I wanted to talk out here." She turned to Wyatt, her dark eyes penetrating, "You don't trust me." She said it simply, not sounding offended or sad, just thoughtful.

"I'm trying to." Wyatt replied honestly.

"What more can I ask for." Thalia gave him a little smile before leaning forward in her chair excitedly, "Alright, so we went a little out of order yesterday, because Wyatt wasn't here. We don't need to watch that day because Chris wasn't involved at all, really. Basically, little Wyatt was watching television and saw a dragon. He conjured it out of the TV and into San Fransisco." She had to stop there, because Chris broke out into a laughing fit.

"You can't be serious." Wyatt looked horrified.

"I am. And, Chris it wasn't funny at the time. The cleaners came and took Wyatt. It was a miracle that your parents got him back."

Chris suddenly stopped laughing and looked apologetically to his brother.

"Where was I? Oh, yes. Then the Book of Shadows incident, you filled Wyatt in on that yesterday, right?" Chris and Wyatt both nodded in reply, "Then we are to..." She closed her eyes in concentration, searching her long memory for the right thing, "The Feud." She smiled, "While the sisters dealt with Paige's sudden involvement with a generations-long disagreement between two families of witches, they were still having a hard time with Phoebe's new power of empathy."

"Yeah, I've heard Mom talk about how annoying that was at first." Wyatt smiled.

"Yes, new empaths can be very intrusive." Thalia pressed onwards, "Well, while that was going on, the other Chris was working with a black market potions-dealer." Chris and Wyatt both looked ready to interrupt, "He needed an empath-blocking potion to keep Phoebe from figuring him out. Think about it, he loved his family, and they liked their new whitelighter from the future. It wouldn't have taken long for Phoebe to figure out that they were much more to him than charges. There was also a lot of bad blood between him and his version of Wyatt that she would have felt every time he saw Baby Wyatt. It could have been disastrous. So Chris helped procure a rare ingredient for the empath potion, and when Leo found him out he pretended it was for Piper and Paige, to help them deal with living with Phoebe. I'll show you a tiny bit of that, some moments between Chris and Leo." Thalia smiled. "Shortly after that was an incident with some pocket-dimensions." She made a sour face, "And it's just about time to watch that particular fiasco."

Chris and Wyatt followed her into the magic room, silently. Judging from her face, they were not going to like what they saw. And they were right.

* * *

The three sisters were once again in the underworld, and things were not going well.

"This always seemed so much more useful when Chris did it." Paige crossed her arms in a huff after Piper had blasted yet another low-level demon in their search for answers.

"Chris never scouted down here." Piper almost sounded offended, "He's been here, yeah, but only when necessary."

"No, I mean 'future boy' Chris. God, sometimes I thought he, like, lived down here." Paige was not in a good mood.

"Yeah, well he had contacts down here, and he did all that undercover work." Phoebe added, "So of course it was more useful than just grabbing demons at random and questioning them."

"Undercover work is probably outside the realm of possibility here, the whole Underworld knows our faces." Piper reasoned.

"I don't get your sudden Underworld kick anyway, Piper. Hasn't it always worked out just figuring out as much as we can and, you know, letting the demons come to us?" Paige asked her oldest sister.

"Because the three of us can handle it." Piper's response was unreasonably sharp, which she regretted right away, "I just don't want to get the whole family involved right now." She amended, much more calmly.

"And that's why we gathered the entire family at the manor. To _not_ get them involved." Phoebe's pointed sarcasm begged the question Piper was avoiding.

"Can we just find another demon and try to get some clue how to find Markus?" Piper sidestepped the conversation, but her sisters weren't having it.

"Not until you explain your strange behavior, young lady." Paige said in her most sarcastic 'I'm a teacher' voice. Phoebe stepped right next to Paige to show her support.

"Alright. It's because of Chris. He's going through enough right now without all this." Piper caved, and showed how very worried she was.

"Okay then." Phoebe looked surprised, but understanding, "I can't argue with that."

"Let's find us another demon!" Paige said, suddenly over-enthusiastic, to change the subject and show Piper she understood.

* * *

Thalia had had to freeze the image, "Please sit down, Chris." She said, exasperated.

"No. He just threw them to that demon. Why did he save them just to let them die!" Chris was very upset. He had just watched his alternate version hand his family over to Gith, a demon that trapped his victims in tiny alternate worlds where they were killed by their own desires.

It wasn't just that the Chris on the screen had allowed it to happen, it was the familiar way he treated the demon. Yes, he had contempt for the creature, but he almost treated Gith like a friend. It nearly made both Halliwell boys sick just watching it.

"He knows demons? He's actually on first name basis with demons?" Wyatt asked Thalia.

"And why do you think that is?" She tried to sound consoling, but knew that Wyatt would figure it out.

"Because he had to. Because if the other version of me wanted Chris around, he'd be bound to meet demons. That or team up with demons to try to stop me." Once again heavy guilt covered his face.

"I just don't get it." Chris said, still not ready to calm down.

"Just keep watching. It will all make sense. You might not agree with it, but it will make sense."

So they watched, and things just got darker. All three Charmed Ones were trapped in a different pocket dimension, and Leo was barely containing his hatred for Chris, trying to get the young man's wings clipped and his soul recycled back to Earth. It was the worst thing you could do to a whitelighter.

_Things were looking bad when Chris orbed back to Gith's lair, but he had a vanquishing potion hidden in one hand. They shared some surprisingly civil banter before Gith turned away and Chris took the opportunity to throw the vanquishing potion. Unfortunately, Gith conjured a darklighter's crossbow first and shot Chris in the side. He fell down, dropping the vanquishing potion and gasping at the pain._

_"I could sense your desire from the beginning. You never wanted to kill your charges, just teach them a lesson." Gith paused for a moment to watch Chris writhing on the floor, "That's right. Darklighter arrow." Gith stomped the vial of vanquishing potion, "The poison shouldn't take long, but with luck you may live just long enough to watch the Charmed Ones learn their lesson after all." It was unclear if Chris even heard what Gith was saying, the poison worked quickly, and he seemed to be having trouble just breathing._

Chris and Wyatt's looks of outrage changed to concern. The other Chris's intentions hadn't been evil after all, and it was awful watching him dieing on the floor of a cave in the Underworld because he had tried to fix his mistake. It got harder to watch as things escalated. Each pocket reality was getting darker, and Chris was fading fast. Already he was shaking and sweating, barely able to keep his eyes open.

_"You didn't tell me the middle sister was an empath." Gith yelled at the almost unconscious Chris._

_"Sorry." His voice was barely above a whisper, and broke halfway through, but he managed to make his contempt for the demon heard._

Wyatt didn't notice the proud smile lighting up his face, realizing how brave the other Chris was. Maybe the guy wasn't so different from his own little brother.

_Gith shrugged it off, sure that his world would still kill its' target, "You know why? Because desires are empty. They lack foundation. This world will fall too." Chris struggled to lift his head, looking determined and worried, Gith continued, "It's only a matter of time."_

_Chris summoned all his strength and managed to use his telekinesis to move Phoebe into Paige's world._

_"No!" Gith screamed, running over and kicking the wounded whitelighter savagely in the face._

All three viewers cringed, turning their own faces as if feeling the force of the demon's kick.

_Chris was breathing very hard now, his head lolling back and his face pale and shining with sweat. He didn't have much time, but he had managed to connect two of the sisters. As Phoebe and Paige got close to figuring out how to find Piper, Gith yelled at Chris more, but by that point he was already passed out either by the pain, or as part of the poison's effect._

_It didn't take long for the sisters to reconnect, and Gith ended up killed by the very world he created. Upon his death, all three Charmed witches got ejected from the false reality and ended up standing in Gith's lair. Once they had gotten their bearings, Wyatt started crying. The world was fake, his fever was not._

_"Wyatt needs help." Piper said softly._

_"Oh my God, so does he." Paige and Phoebe noticed the unconscious Chris on the floor. They ran over to him, turning him over so they could see his wound, "He's still breathing." Paige looked wide-eyed at her sisters._

_"Leo!" Piper called out._

_The Elder appeared almost instantly, "You're back, where were you?" He had a strange expression on his face._

_"Heal now, ask later." Piper replied impatiently._

_Leo healed Wyatt and then turned to Chris._

Thalia brought up the next scene, Piper and Leo putting Wyatt down for bed.

_"Well, I'm glad you made it out of that other world alright."_

_"Yeah, and you have, ah, Chris to thank for that." She kept the mocking tone down to a minimum._

_"Chris." Leo smiled awkwardly, "Yeah, well he should have taken me with him to that cave, or at least told me where my family was."_

_Piper looked down at the ground, "Leo give him a break. He earned it today."_

_The two talked about having a "normal" day for a few minutes, until Chris knocked on the door. He was turning himself in for Leo to take him to the Elders. Chris's eyes didn't leave the floor, looking overwhelmingly guilty and sad. Then Leo handed over his only evidence against Chris: the Valkyrie's pendent._

The Chris on screen smiled with surprised delight, and for one brilliant moment Wyatt saw him as the happy brother he grew up with. Thalia froze the image.

"Still angry with me?" Thalia's voice was questioning, but her smile was confident.

"He made some dumb decisions." Chris said, "But he meant well. Is that going to be some running theme with these things?"

"He was brave. Stupid, for someone so smart, but brave." Wyatt said, making eye contact with Thalia for the first time that day.

They went back to the living room for some sunlight. They sat and Thalia filled them in on a few other misadventures the Halliwells had gotten themselves into, from demon deals and Excalibur, to baby manticores. They talked for over an hour, and were starting to get along surprisingly well. It was easy to like Thalia when she wasn't angry or speaking cryptically. She didn't look any older than Wyatt or Chris, except for the depth of her eyes.

"It's about time you two headed home." She said when the conversation reached a lull, "I'll see you tomorrow." Something in her words was unsettling, but she waved goodbye as always.

* * *

"Are you sure?" His creaky voice somehow managed to sound smooth.

"Yes, sir, it was the Charmed Ones. They were asking questions about Markus." The shape-shifter eyed his new leader fearfully.

"They caught on quicker than I anticipated." His eerily singsong manner crackled on the last word, making the shape-shifter's skin crawl, "No matter." He playfully shook his finger at his follower, "We'll just have to move up the attack." He sounded gleeful, but spoke as slowly as ever, "Tell Markus to be at their home with his men... tomorrow." His wicked smile could have made the Devil himself back away.


	11. Chapter 11- Stepping In

**Chapter Eleven- Stepping In**

**Author's Note: Sorry about the delay, guys. Insanity has been bursting through the walls of my life lately and I couldn't get around to this little story until last night. If you stuck with it, your patience is extremely appreciated!**

****It was a cloudy, drizzly morning in San Fransisco. It was a little after eight and Leo had been up for nearly an hour, attempting to make breakfast for the family. It had been a stressful last few days for everyone and he had been so busy with his whitelighter duties that he felt he hadn't been there for his family. Being married to a chef meant that he didn't do much cooking. He was a little out of practice, and it showed. His pancakes were heavy frisbees, his eggs had managed to turn to a series of tiny pebbles and burn, he wasn't quite sure what had happened to the bacon, but it didn't look or smell edible as it popped grease everywhere. He stepped back from the stove-top and surveyed the damage, "Damn." He said softly.

A bright yellow light was suddenly next to him, it looked like a rogue sunbeam, and as the light faded there stood Thalia, a teasing smile on her face, "I heard that language, Mister."

"Thalia." It took Leo a moment for his brain to wrap around her standing in his kitchen, "Is something wrong?"

Thalia sighed, her smile fading fast, "That depends on how you look at it." She looked sideways at the bacon still popping on the stove, "You are three minutes from starting a pretty major fire, Leo, so I suggest you turn all of this off and follow me to the living room." Leo did as he was told.

Thalia stood in the hallway by the front door and leaned against the wall. Leo put his hands in his pockets, looking worried, "Should I wake everyone up?"

Thalia shook her head nearly imperceptively, "No need." Almost before the words were out of her mouth, Wyatt and Chris came trundling down the stairs, half asleep.

"Good morning, Sunshine." Thalia called out happily.

Wyatt and Chris both stopped in their tracks, looking more than startled. "We aren't late, are we?" Chris asked, blearly eyed, but awake.

Piper ran to the top of the steps, still in her pajamas, "Who yelled?" She looked ready to blow something up.

"Everyone stay calm and get down here. Quickly." Thalia looked very no-nonsense, and everyone listened without question. As soon as they were all standing at the foot of the stairs, no less than ten Darklighters orbed in by the front door. It took them less than a second to see all of the Halliwells standing there, waiting for them.

"Hello, boys." Thalia stepped forward, hands by her side and death in her eyes.

One of the Darklighters nearest Thalia raised his crossbow. She didn't seem to notice, but before the Darklighter could pull the trigger, he burst into flame, vanquished. She turned her attention to the rest of them, and without moving burned all but one Darklighter, the ringleader, into cinders.

"Have I made my point?" She asked, her dark eyes flashing.

"What do you want?" The Darklighter nearly spit his words at her, but he dropped his crossbow.

"I want you to turn tail and run, Markus. I want you to never set foot above ground again. I want you to go to your leader and tell him and everyone else following him that Thalia is with the Halliwells, and I'm not going anywhere." She strode forward, getting right in his face, "And after you tell him, I want you to tell Barbas if he ever calls me that again I will wash his mouth out with dishsoap. Did you get all of that?" The iron in her voice was unmistakable, "And if you don't do as I've asked, I will know, and you will be dead in less time than it takes for me to snap my fingers." There was a terrifying moment where no one spoke, no one moved, "You may go." Her disgust for Markus was tangible and he didn't wait around any longer to test her patience.

"Wow." Wyatt was the first to speak.

Thalia turned to face the family, looking like a guilty child, "I'm sorry you had to see that, but it needed to look like a united front." She looked at the ground.

"I think you just saved my family." Leo couldn't compose the look on his face into anything other than shock.

"It really was nothing."

"No, it was not nothing. I don't even know what to say." Piper said, her hands clasped together under her chin.

"How did you do that?" Wyatt tilted his head towards the piles of ash that were once Darklighters.

Thalia glanced at the dust, "I will clean that up. Sorry, again." She looked back at Wyatt, "When you've been around as long as I have, you pick up some tricks." She seemed to suddenly remember something, "Speaking of which." There was the quick sunbeam again, almost too bright to look at, and she was gone.

"Did she just teleport?" Chris asked, he'd just woken up and it was already a long day.

"I'm pretty sure she'll be right back." Leo still couldn't shake the happily shocked expression from his face. He had come to terms with the fact that he would never understand Thalia, but she hadn't let him down yet.

As if in answer to his words, the bright sunspot reappeared, fading to reveal Thalia. She carried a large canvas shopping back, "Our session will be here today. Demons will be watching the house, but they won't attack as long as I'm here."

"So can't you just stay?" Piper joked, but more than just part of her meant it.

"For a little while I can. However long you'll let me." She gave a winning smile, "But even if I'm not here, I'll be close on hand if you need me. At least until Chris has been sorted out."

"You make me sound like a juvenile delinquent." Chris never could pass up an opportunity for sarcasm.

Thalia turned her brightest smile to him, and he found himself suddenly interested in his sneakers. It was off-putting how she could go from terrifying to downright sweet in a minute flat.

"Alright, I've brought the Ronyx stone, so if you two could direct me to whatever room you feel most appropriate..." Thalia didn't have to finish her sentence. Both Halliwell boys immediately started escorting her to the attic.

"Hold on, just a second." Piper asked, and all three of them stopped and turned around, "Correct me if I'm wrong, but did you say Barbas was behind this?" The look in her eyes was wary.

"Yes." Thalia said quietly, she saw the look of fear growing in Piper's eyes, "Don't worry. Everyone's afraid of something, and for Barbas, I'm that something."

"How is that possible?" Piper kept her tone conversational, but didn't look very reassured.

Thalia glanced up the stairs, and then down at her canvas bag, "It's a rather long story, but I'll tell you everything in a little while." The Halliwell matriarch nodded in agreement.

As they climbed the stairs, Piper walked over to Leo and gave him a hug, "Is that your cooking I smell?" She crinkled her nose at the unappetizing funk coming from the kitchen.

"It was meant to be a surprise." Leo said sheepishly.

"Well, I think Thalia's surprise beat yours." She laughed at her husband's continued look of shock.

"You know what? I don't mind. She can surprise us like that whenever she wants." Leo smiled as he held his wife's hands in his, leaning in for a kiss.

* * *

"You have to tell me how you took them all out like that." Wyatt was still excited over the mass-vanquish.

Thalia laughed freely, "Another time." and started unpacking her bag of magic.

It was funny watching her pull out the Ronyx crystal. She had never turned it off, and the projection whirled around the room as she brought it out and placed it on the small table Chris had pulled out from the corner of the room. Chris and Wyatt walked around the room, pulling a rickety couch over. Thalia continued pulling strange things from her bag. She smiled triumphantly as she pulled a shallow silver bowl out, next was a crystal flask, a faded shred of fabric, and the very same bone knife that Wyatt had picked up on his first visit to the Georgia fortune-teller's house.

"What's all this?" Chris asked, picking up the bowl.

"That." Thalia smiled, her eyes glittering with pride, "Is a part of the trickiest bit of magic I've had to work on in a very long time." She took the bowl from Chris and set it down carefully on the table.

"What does it do?" Wyatt's interest had been piqued.

"It shows timelines." Thalia said the word with respect. She gestured for the two boys to sit down, and spoke to the Ronyx stone, changing the frozen image.

_Piper, Phoebe and Paige were sitting at P3, making dirty jokes at Piper's expense._

Wyatt cringed melodramatically. Thalia laughed.

_"What are you guys talking about?" Chris asked without slowing down as he walked past them towards his storage closet bedroom._

_"Stuff." Phoebe said with a guilty smile._

_ "Hey where're you going?" Paige added._

_"I've got to go work on the next demon... stration." He replied, changing the word last minute to avoid anyone in the crowded club from hearing._

_"Chris, why don't you relax and come have a drink with us?" Phoebe asked, looking the slightest bit flustered at his overzealous work ethic._

_"Thanks, but I didn't come here to relax." Chris walked away._

_"That is one bitchy Whitelighter." Phoebe shook her head._

"Hey!" Chris almost laughed, trying to sound offended. Thalia shushed him, but the events on the screen soon became too intriguing for either Halliwell to make comments.

It was the quietest Wyatt and Chris had ever been during a viewing. They stared in absolute silence, emotions flickering across their faces as they pieced together the information being shown to them. He had been engaged. To an evil witch assassin. Who had tried and failed to strip his powers, leaving him fatally wounded. This was all too much. It was like some syfy spy action movie. Then Chris stepped into the time portal with Bianca, leaving the Halliwell witches in shock at not only his disappearance, but the news of his half-witch genetics.

_The Charmed Ones, with Leo tagging along as usual, made it to their attic, hoping they had taken Chris's loaded statement correctly. They placed the power return spell under the floorboard. Almost before they could second-guess their actions, the young future-boy came shooting out of the wall. He apologized, restating his future-consequences mantra. Somehow or other, he had made it back through time unscathed. Whatever he'd gone through, it was clear it had been life-and-death, and Phoebe's empathy immediately picked up on Bianca's dark fate. _

Thalia paused the replay. Wyatt leaned forward, "What happened? Why didn't we see him in the future?"

Thalia smiled, "Because the Ronyx shows past and present, not hypothetical, averted futures."

"That would make sense." Wyatt looked a little put-out.

"But you know what happened, right? I'm guessing you're going to tell us?" Chris looked to Thalia.

"No." She laughed at their surprised looks, "I'm going to show you. Remember this?" She picked up the almost-forgotten silver bowl. She moved the Ronyx stone back into her bag of tricks and got to work on setting up for a peek into the never-was. She hummed as she worked, but it didn't seem idle, it was too intricate and intended-sounding.

* * *

Piper was by the front door, drinking coffee and smiling down at the dusty remnants of her would-be attackers. Thalia was turning out to be pretty dang useful. She heard the clanking sounds of Leo doing the dishes, he'd insisted on cleaning up his failed breakfast attempt. Piper almost laughed aloud at the morning's events, unusual even for the Halliwells. Suddenly the front door came open and in came Phoebe, along with a gust of crisp fall air.

The wind blew the ash into dancing twirls for a moment, looking fairly pretty before landing into more of a mess than before. Phoebe looked down at the greyish piles, "Did I miss something?" She asked playfully.

"Oh, yeah, you did." Piper replied before taking another sip of her coffee.

"Is the book upstairs? I think I've got an idea of who might be behind all the crazies." Phoebe clutched happily at a small stack of papers in her hands.

"Yes." Piper bent the word in two thoughtfully, "but we've kind of got some company upstairs."

"Company?" Phoebe grumbled in surprise, "It is too early in the morning for demonic attacks _and_ house-guests."

"Ha, you're telling me. You aren't the one who's had to deal with it all morning." She reached for the papers in her sister's hands, "The boys and Thalia are using the attic right now, and I'm not very inclined to interrupt them." She shuffled the messy stack into something a little more orderly, "I'm going to take a wild guess that the name Barbas comes up somewhere in here?"

Phoebe's eyes got wide, "How did you know?" She gave a mystified smile.

"Thalia. Let's go sit down and I'll catch you up on what's going on."

* * *

In the Underworld, heads were rolling. He never raised his voice above its' usual cracked velvet croon, but that somehow made it worse.


	12. Chapter 12- Dark Days

Chapter Twelve- Dark Days

It was bad. It made Chris's stomach turn uneasy cartwheels, but he couldn't look away. It made Wyatt feel dirty: bile rising in his throat, desparately need a shower and windex in his eyes kind of dirty. Thalia was the only one that didn't seem ready to throw something, but that may have been because her spell kept her busy singing soft, foreign words to maintain the magic.

Thalia had hummed at first, poured the glittering contents of a crystal flask into the bowl, dropped pale powder into the liquid, then the shredded fabric with an ominous, dark stain. hazy shapes and muted colors had started swirling through the strange brew. Thalia pulled out the bone knife, her song reaching a high point. She slashed roughly across her own hand. She didn't break the cadence of her haunting melody as the smallest drop of blood fell into the bowl, changing its' half-formed image

_The city was a broken mockery of itself, but two young people didn't seem bothered as they spoke quiet, sweet words in a ruined garden. Love doesn't notice the end times. He proposed and she said yes._

Thalia had stepped back from the bowl and Wyatt and Chris came forward, leaning in to see the shimmering scenes play out. She sang softly, falling into the backgound noise as the bowl began to emit sounds of its' own. Words that would now never be spoken.

_The young couple again. This time in the beloved manor. But it wasn't the same. Objects were littered through it, set up strikingly similar to how museums showcase exhibits. There was a tour guide and flying security cameras. "Scanning for witches." The tour guide smiled and moved on. The young man flicked his hand lazily and turned the camera elsewhere. There was work to be done._

Chris was so focused on what was happening, he didn't even voice the barrage of questions he normally interrupted viewings with. It was like a burning building: he couldn't tear his eyes away.

_The young couple were in the basement of the manor, she had killed a demon guard. They said what could have been their final goodbyes, waiting for their moment to strike. To protect the past and save the future. It was clear in their eyes that this was most likely a suicide run._

Wyatt gasped at the sick perversion of what was meant to be the Halliwell's home. Chris couldn't make a sound.

_Chris and Bianca in the attic. She drew a symbol on the wall. The air was tense. Calm before the storm._

The pictures were small in the bowl, but they seemed to project across the viewers' eyes, filling their vision. It was worse than anything the Ronyx crystal had shown. With each changing scene Wyatt and Chris were aware of Thalia's chanted command melody.

_Call for the book. Say the spell. Jump through time, but Bianca's being attacked. She can handle it, you need to save Wyatt._

Wyatt was wringing his hands out, pain and guilt stamped across his face. Chris wasn't blinking.

_Now they're back. Through the same portal, but both of them. The sweet girl was now dressed in demonic black leather. Her face was set in cold stone, her dark eyes no longer carrying the frightened hope. Demons were everywhere, and then no where. Wyatt._

The silence in the attic was broken by the two brothers gasping together. It was made real right before their eyes. Wyatt had never looked so angry. It went beyond the clothes and the wild mane of curls; his face was wicked, and his eyes held malice.

_Now the banter, the defiance in Chris's eyes held strong, despite being stripped of his powers, of any chance of surviving the encounter. Wyatt seemed to be running out of patience. A fight was useless against one so strong, but it was not the first time Chris had been flung across a room. Bianca charged Wyatt, emotion finally flooding her pretty face again. Chris found the spell, but Bianca was hurt. He tossed Wyatt, but it was too late. Bianca was dead. He jumped back through the time portal. He could still save her if he saved Baby Wyatt._

Thalia fell silent and the colors melded into the pale grey of the potion, "I'm sorry you had to see that." Her words almost too quiet to hear.  
Wyatt stood and paced, shivering as if trying to rid himself of the images. Chris watched his brother with a strange mixture of emotion. It was bad.

* * *

Piper continually glanced at the ceiling. Phoebe caught on to the nervous gesture, "What do you think they're watching up there?" She gave her big sister a nostalgic little smile.

"Whatever it is, we've already seen it. I just hope they've gotten to the point where we were at least tolerable to be around." She bit her lip, holding back some tirade going on in her head.

Phoebe leaned forward in her seat, "Oh, Honey, he won't hold it against us, he knows we don't trust easy. Future-Chris was a difficult person to have faith in at first."

Piper stood up and started straightening the couch cushions, "It's just... watching that day again. Watching us meet him during the Titan attack. How could I have looked at my son like that? I just wish he didn't have to see it. I wish neither Chris had to see it."

"Sweetie, how were you to know? How was any of us to know? I get that you feel bad about it, I feel bad too, but it's in the past and Chris is here now, and he knows we love him. He knows you love him. You can't really ask for more than that." Phoebe's calm, caring patience was the only thing that could reign Piper in from a near melt-down.

"I know. You're right."

"Excuse me, could you say that again?" Phoebe put one hand to her ear melodramatically, smile breaking out through an attempt at looking serious.

Piper threw a pen one of the boys had left on the couch, it glanced off the side of Phoebe's arm, "So. Barbas. You wanna talk about that now?" She asked, allowing a small smile.

* * *

"Oh, this will be a tricky one." The silence of a dozen demons too scared to breathe filled the valley as Barbas paced. His followers moaning internally, only Barbas could find open fields in Hell. It made the other demons uneasy to be so... exposed. Then again, that was an appropriate feeling, seeing as Barbas could see through the ins and outs of their innermost thoughts and fears.

Barbas continued to pace the barren valley, his frustration melding with excitement, "They've got the Greek helping them now. Isn't that just my luck?" He smiled at the nearest demon, eerie blue eyes shining. The demon tried not to flinch away from the smile, and Barbas gave a wheezy laugh, his black clothes flapping about his tall frame in the sulfurous wind of the Underworld.

"Sir." A broad-shouldered demon named Gaspar stood forward, "Should we gather more of your fighters to take out the seer?"

"Numbers don't matter against her!" Barbas's manic smile was a crooked gash in his face, He threw his hands out wide, he'd spoken the words like they were some great punch-line. "No. No. No, this one will be trickier than that." He placed his hands together almost as if to pray and touched the ends of his fingers to his forehead in thought. "Why did it have to be NOW?" The last word was gravel and rage, and yelled with so much unexpected force it made those around him jump.

"Numbers." He was back to his normal, quiet singsong, "Figures and Statistics, these things mean nothing to creatures like her. It'll take more of a delicate approach, but if she stood with the Charmed Ones..." He returned to pacing, deep in thought. He raised a forefinger up and shook it as if about to chastise naughty children.

"She stood with them." A note of triumph in his reedy voice, "She's not tried to affect the course of events in over a thousand years. This is good." He nearly crowed with delight. "Oh, we'll still get the Charmed Ones. And if we're lucky we can break Thalia as well."

"Sir, if force in numbers won't work, how will you kill the Greek?" Gaspar asked, his voice a soft hiss, as if afraid how Barbas would react to the question. A reasonable fear.

"Well..." Barbas chuckled to himself, "That's the beauty of it, she won't die." His face set, an evil curl at the corners of his mouth, "Killing the Charmed Ones is our endgame, boys, but emotionally destroying an undieing pain in my ass? Looks like Christmas is coming early this year."

* * *

By the end of the day, the Halliwell Manor was bustling, but not in it's usual, happy way. Inside were all three Charmed Ones, their husbands, the eight Halliwell children, and Thalia. No one was taking any chances with Barbas out for their blood. It was like some extended family reunion, lasting indefinitely. Or at least until Barbas had stopped.

Chris, Wyatt, and Thalia stayed in the attic most of the day, watching hours of the past through the Ronyx stone. After seeing the almost-future, Chris had been determined to get through the entire process as quickly as possible.

"Like a Band-Aid." His green eyes were flat with negativity, but determined, "What's the point in stretching this out any longer than it needs to be?" No one could argue with his resolve, and the rest of the day the three of them stayed cloistered in the attic.

With the entire extended family over, the sleeping arrangements had to be creative. Piper, Phoebe and Paige were all staying in the master bedroom. Leo, Coop, and Henry had each taken a couch downstairs. Wyatt, Chris, and Henry Jr. were in sleeping bags in the attic, and the five girls had the final two bedrooms. Thalia was in the conservatory, curled up in a chair, and sleeping lightly.

At half-past two in the morning, Chris started tossing in his sleep. Within minutes it had gotten so bad it woke up the other two boys.

"Chris?" Wyatt shook his brother, trying to rouse him, "Hey, Man, wake up." Chris didn't respond beyond continued gasping and rolling.

"Chris!" Henry Jr. tried to sit his cousin up, as if that would wake him.

"CHRIS!" Wyatt shouted, voice cracking and desperation filling every inch of his face.


	13. Chapter 13- Bittersweet

**Chapter Thirteen- Bittersweet**

_It was heat and pain; and it wouldn't stop. It seeped through his veins and soaked into his bones. His head felt heavy, pounding and stiflingly warm. He couldn't breathe. It had started slowly, almost innocently flu-like with a little fever and aches in his bones, but it didn't take long for the heat to crank up until it was all he felt, until he couldn't think for the boiling tidal wave crashing through him._

_A tiny voice within him tried to be heard, screaming in the distance that the fire in his bones would burn away everything. His thoughts, his emotions, even his memories were turning to ashes, but the more he fought it the worse it hurt. He collapsed into a little heap on the floor, shaking and trying to fight it. His insides blistered with some dark outrage against his attempts, but he kept holding on. He had lost control earlier, but now he filled his mind with thoughts of his family, of his love for them, of anything good he could dredge into his brain. If he could hold on to what he was fighting for, he could maintain a little longer against it all._

_"Chris."_

_He heard his name, a dark, feminine voice calling to him. His scalding blood ached to answer. He fought it, and lost. In the battle inside of him, he was having more luck with keeping his mind than his body. Physically, he knew the blazing venom had been changing him, but it had not completely erased him yet. The voice kept calling._

_He answered, trying to hold on, trying to keep the distance between what he was and what he knew he was becoming. It hurt, and he struggled against it. The voice gave him an order, and he rejected it. The pain was worse than he could imagine, and suddenly it doubled. It knocked him to the ground. She laughed. He couldn't hear what she said through the screaming pain inside his head._

_He asked himself, why? Why did it hurt beyond anything imaginable? Why was he fighting when that only made it worse? The word filled what was left of his thoughts, and he couldn't answer. He didn't know why anymore, and he simply couldn't understand. His words cracked with the pain and confusion he felt. He could no longer picture those loving faces he'd been so focused on. He couldn't force his mind through the blinding agony to pull out reasons to keep fighting._

_Though some small part of him still revolted, he was caught up in anger against it all. He roared aloud, brutal rage reverberating through the basement. In that one moment, what was left of him could feel itself slipping. The heat rose higher and sunk deeper into him. His very soul was burning away, and he couldn't stop it anymore. The darkness in his blood coursed freely. He didn't want to stop it._

"Chris!" He was shaking, and the voice was calling again. "Chris!" But it wasn't the same voice. The pain was gone. The sweltering heat had subsided. But still he was shaking.

"Chris!" Another voice, scared and very close, was calling. "Please, man, you've gotta snap out of this. Chris!"

"I'm getting help, I'll be right back!" The first voice trembled, and was followed by clunking, running footsteps.

Chris opened his eyes. There was Wyatt. Danger. Chris tried to jump to his feet, but his brother held him still. Neither said a word as Chris struggled to stand, writhing and throwing punches. Wyatt simply held him down, taking the hits seemingly without noticing them. His eyes were filled with hurt and compassion. Chris looked around wildly, like an injured animal.

"It's alright, Henry, you don't have to wake the whole house." Chris heard yet another voice, muffled this time, and he couldn't see where it was coming from as his eyes roved the attic. He took a deep breath and calmed himself. He could think again. He was not burning alive, and his brother, his good brother, sat next to him protectively. He took another quaking, deep breath. He looked Wyatt in the eye and nodded slightly. Wyatt let him go, returning the nod. The soft sounds of creaking floorboards alerted them of people entering the attic, but neither bothered to see who it was.

Wyatt held his arms out as if half-expecting Chris to fall over. The question was written all over his face, he didn't have to say it for his little brother to respond.

"Yeah, I'm alright." Chris held his forehead with both hands like someone holding the pieces together, waiting for the glue to dry.

"Wyatt, heal him." Chris finally recognized the newcomer's voice as Thalia's. She pulled his hands away from his face. His palms were covered in deep, crescent shaped cuts. His fingernails were equally bloody.

Wyatt held his hands over his baby brother's and let the golden light undo the damage.

Chris put his hands back on his forehead, his headache throbbing with every sound. He closed his eyes.

"Fix it." Wyatt asked, newly dissipated panic leaving him in an agitated state. Thalia put her hands over Chris' ears and chanted softly. When she let go, the pain was gone.

Chris stood up. Wyatt shadowed his movements, looking wary, "Wyatt, I'm fine." Chris's words were flat and tired.

"Um. What just happened?" Henry Jr. asked.

"It's a long story." Chris spoke with just a hint of his normal deadpan. He was still breathing heavily as he started to walk in slow, wide circles.

"Is it something I need to know?" Henry Jr. asked plainly, rearranging the look on his face into something less unsettled.

"Not particularly, not yet at least." Wyatt answered.

"Then I'll go downstairs. Make sure I didn't wake anybody up." Henry Jr. was a very practical person, and despite being the only non-magical member of the youngest generation in the Warren line, was good to have in sticky situations for just that reason. He nearly always kept his head.

"Yes." Thalia's voice was gloomy, but clear. Breaking the minute-long silence after Jr.'s departure.

"What?" Wyatt asked abruptly, still on edge.

"It'd be nice if you waited for me to ask the question before you answered it." Chris continued pacing, arms crossed against his chest and back hunched in as if warding off cold weather.

"You wanted to know if it was a memory, not just a dream. It was." Thalia stepped lightly over to Chris, putting a small hand on his arm comfortingly.

"How bad was it?" Wyatt knew his brother, and had never seen him quite so shaken up.

"Bad." Chris turned from Wyatt to Thalia, "What was it?" He sounded very young, and very hurt.

"I see the future, Chris. Not your dreams. But from what I saw, from what you would have said about it, I believe you dreamed his memory of being infected by the spider demon. Does that sound about right?" Her dark eyes were kind behind slightly askew glasses. She had not been awake long.

Chris tried to remember more than just the pain. He could picture a pale woman's face speaking to him through a large spider web. "Yeah. That sounds right." Bitterness filled his voice.

No one spoke after that, but they didn't go back to sleep.

* * *

As the Sun rose slowly, Paige was the first person to stagger sleepily into the kitchen to find Chris and Wyatt drinking coffee.

"Why are you two awake at this ungodly hour?" She asked, her voice husky with sleep and the ill-temper she always had in the morning.

"Can I ask you something, Paige?" Chris spoke for the first time in hours, setting his cup down as she poured a fresh one for herself.

"No questions, just coffee." She sighed contentedly as she sipped her caffeine. Content that slipped away when she caught the look on her nephews' faces. "What happened?" She was suddenly very serious.

"Nothing. Not really. Just a, just a dream." Chris tried to speak calmly, to get Paige out of her battle-ready mindset.

"A dream?" Her head nodded forward. Her eyebrows crinkled in confusion.

"Yeah. Well, more of a..." Chris paused, knowing that however she reacted it wouldn't be good, "a memory. One that wasn't mine."

She caught on quickly, "Right." it took her a second to process, and then a look of deep concern came over her, "I'm guessing it was pretty bad." he nodded in response, "What's your question?"

"Why did he..." Chris searched for words.

"Chris, I learned a couple decades ago not to ask why he did anything. He either told us or he didn't, and there wasn't all that much we could do to get him to cop to something if he didn't want to."

"I know. I mean, he kept a lot of secrets, but we haven't seen everything yet. You have, so maybe you would know."

"Alright," but she didn't sound confident, "Ask away."

There were a thousand questions. He searched his thoughts and knew what he wanted to ask, "From what we've seen, it looks like he had something against Dad. Why didn't the other me like him?"

Wyatt looked surprised, but Paige looked uncomfortable, "It's really early in the morning, kid, and you should probably talk to Leo about that one." She put her hands on her hips, looking contemplative, "How much have you guys seen?"

Chris and Wyatt looked at each other. They had done practically nothing but watch the Ronyx all the previous day. "Evil genie demon." Chris answered first.

Wyatt nodded in agreement, "You just found out who he really was."

Paige interrupted with a small laugh.

"What?" Wyatt sounded a little perturbed. In his opinion, it had not been a funny thing to watch.

"It's just you two finishing each other's sentences. I have twins, and even they don't do that. Kinda creepy." She nodded her head as if to punctuate her statement, turned on her heels and walked out of the kitchen. Chris blinked hard, then shook his head before speaking.

"She just changed the subject." He looked to his big brother, exasperation and amusement in his eyes, "And then she just up and left."

"That she did. She really didn't want to answer your question." Wyatt smiled mockingly, shaking his head and drinking his coffee. Henry Jr. walked into the kitchen, looking a little hesitant.

"Hey, you guys _are_ here. Thalia said if you are done with your coffee she'd like to begin today's session."

* * *

Piper woke up peacefully. Paige was already awake and out of bed, but Phoebe still snored softly off to the side of the big bed. Piper hopped up, getting herself ready for the day. She hummed quietly, enjoying the complete lack of worry she had for the first time in far too many years. Sure, the house was full to bursting, but every relative that was a possible target (Which meant practically every relative) was safe for the moment. Piper could have skipped down the hall. What demon would possibly attack? There were fifteen people in the house, and most of them packed pretty heavy magical firepower. Even those without offensive magic knew hand-to-hand combat, or could throw vanquishing potions with impeccable aim. Demons preferred going against innocents or outnumbering unprepared witches. The Halliwell manor was filled with the equivalent to a locked and loaded army.

She kissed her husband hello, and hummed a tune her grandmother had sung to her years and years ago. Piper Halliwell felt safe, and that was usually when the shit hit the fan.

"Good morning!" She said cheerily when she found Paige fiddling with a small scrap of paper in the conservatory, "What are you up to?"

"Hiding from your boys." Paige gave her big sister a bittersweet smile.

"Why? Are they up to something?"

"No. They were just asking questions about Other Chris." Paige unfolded the paper and looked down at it. Piper realized it was the old photograph from Wyatt's first birthday. The only picture ever taken of the time-traveler.

"Why did you take that picture?" Piper asked for the thousandth time over the years, "And why did you keep it? It's not a very good one, he's moving and making a face at you."

"Yeah, he was telling me off about not taking pictures." Paige giggled, a tear welling in her eye, "We had just finished setting up the decorations and I caught him telling Wyatt 'happy birthday' before the guests arrived."

"You never told me that before." Piper leaned in close to her sister, looking over her shoulder at the photograph. It was old and faded and creased.

"That was why I had to take it, the moment was just too cute." Paige ran her fingers over the ragged edge of the picture.

"Why'd you keep it?" Piper spoke in barely a whisper.

"You remember that day, right?"

"How could I not. As soon as the party was over we got attacked. That was the day of the ghostly plane incident." Piper blushed.

"Yeah, well, while you guys were going through that, Chris was fading into nothing here. We almost lost him and all I could think was, I cannot forget him. You know? I kept thinking that even if he faded out, as long as I held onto his memory, he still existed somehow. It's kinda hokey, but when I got the film developed, I don't know, I just kept thinking about that day. Then when Gideon...When he faded away right in front of me..." She took a deep, steadying breath, "Yes, he was born, I could pick him up and hold him anytime, but it wasn't the same. I couldn't get rid of this picture, because I didn't want to lose the first Chris." Paige looked her big sister in the eyes, seeking understanding. She found it.

"Sweetie, you don't have to defend yourself." Piper pulled Paige in for a hug, "And it's not 'hokey'. I just... I miss him too. Even now, even after raising him. I miss that messed up young man we lost, and I'm so happy I can look at that picture and see him."

* * *

"Word of warning." Thalia's usually bright, bird-like voice came out in a slow, deep whisper. "After yesterday, after your dream this morning. Continuing at this pace could very well shatter what is left of the spell keeping your two consciousnesses separate."

"Short version?" Chris stared at her defiantly.

"If you push it, he comes out sooner rather than later."

"How much sooner?"

Thalia simply shook her head in reply, "I cannot tell you until the time comes."

"Well tell me this: it looks to me like we are sitting on the edge of some pretty serious shit. The whole family is on lock-down against who knows how many demons. Tell me it wouldn't be better to get through this little personal drama of mine as fast as possible, and get the real fighter here. The other Chris." He spoke harshly, but his eyes looked scared.

Thalia tilted her head in thought, staring at him without blinking, "You think yourself too weak to fight in the upcoming battle."

Wyatt, who had been quiet throughout the conversation, stepped forward, "Seriously, Chris? You kick more demon ass than virtually anyone else on the planet. Except me." He lightly punched his brother's bony shoulder.

"You feel compromised." Thalia acted as if she hadn't heard Wyatt. "Chris, what have you not told us?" She looked at him expectantly, but without curiosity.

"Like you don't already know. Can you please just play the stupid crystal?" Chris gestured angrily to the Ronyx stone on the table in front of them, and the stack of old magazines on the floor behind it exploded.

"What the Hell, man?" Wyatt jumped back as tiny embers floated down like hellish confetti.

Chris clutched his hands to the back of his neck and started pacing, "I just want to get this over with. I think I'm losing my mind, and I just want it to be over with."

"I think you need to tell your brother, Chris, before we move any further into this."

Chris kept pacing, but seemed to compose himself enough to talk, "It's like something is wrong with my eyes. It started when Paige was walking out of the kitchen. I could've sworn her hair changed colors, but I blew it off. Then I saw Leo on the stairs, and he looked impossibly older than yesterday. But then I thought about yesterday, and he looked exactly the goddamn same. Now it's a playpen on the floor right over there by the book. I see it, plain as day, until I try to look directly at it. It's going to get worse, I can just feel it. There isn't much time left, and I want to be prepared for this. So can we please, just watch these psychotic rip-offs of home-movies now? Please?"

"Yes. But first you need to know that there isn't much left for you to see. If we go at the pace you are asking, then by the time the sun goes down, you will be done, and the spell on your mind will be fractured irreparably."

"What happened to, 'I can't tell you until the time comes'?" Wyatt asked under his breath.

Chris stopped pacing. The morning sun came through the window, lighting up his tear-filled green eyes, "Will I get to say goodbye?" He seemed to ask the far wall.

"Yes. Your mother would find a way to kill me if I didn't let you say goodbye."

"Then let's do this."

* * *

"If you don't mind my asking, what is the plan, Sir?" Gaspar tried his luck yet again. When Markus had returned unsuccessfully from the Halliwells with news from Thalia, Barbas had redefined "don't shoot the messenger" it was brutal, but it left an opening for Barbas' right-hand man. The usually solo demon was one of the most powerful and influential in the Underworld when he wasn't being a hermit, and Gaspar was not going to loose this golden opportunity to rise in notoriety. If sucking up was involved, what good was pride compared to raising his position?

"Well, we've got them all worked up and bunkered down, so for now why not let them stew in it?" Barbas seemed only too pleased to answer, a fact that left Gaspar thanking his lucky stars. When Barbas didn't feel like talking, it was unpleasant for whichever demon attempted the conversation.

Barbas wasn't quite done yet, "We turn their stronghold into a big cage. Keep them crammed together in there, on edge, expecting the storm of the century, until they start to crack from within. Then..." He got very quiet, smiling and closing his eyes rapturously, "Then I have some fun."

* * *

It was emotional, to say the least. Watching his mother find out who he was, then watching his other self seeming to reject her. Seeing that there wasn't just a grudge against Leo, but an all-out hatred. Watching himself turning into a spider demon was the worst of it, though, because it was almost as if he could feel the infection burning through him again. Still, they kept watching. Chris knew that his brother was staring him down from the seat next to him, but he didn't care at the moment. All he cared about was getting through it all.

The hours passed, and it was clear that they didn't have much time left. On the screen, Piper's pregnancy was like a twisted reminder of the ticking clock to the end. Chris couldn't help but think, "That's actually me." and he knew that the day he was born was the day his other self died. Still, the scenes flew by.  
Chris and Wyatt both tensed up whenever Gideon was involved. The level of trust that Leo had for him, the way he pretended to help, even the way he'd convinced himself he was doing good, it all made Chris' skin crawl.

"Don't fall for it. Don't fall for it. Please, don't fall for it, he's a liar." Wyatt whispered fiercely as he rocked back and forth. But it did no good; Gideon convinced the Charmed Ones that those behind the demonic reality show "Witch Wars" were the ones to turn their twice-blessed child.

* * *

"I talked to Thalia this morning." Piper spoke very quietly, her words sounding hollow.

"Is everything alright?" Leo came over to where his wife was seated on the bed. He knelt down and put a hand on her arm. He knew immediately that something was seriously wrong. Piper was not one to stare at the floor and speak softly, she was confident and strong.

"When they finish watching..." Her voice choked, "When they've seen what they needed to see," she turned her reddened eyes to Leo, but there were no tears, "She's going to wake up the other Chris." Her eyes dropped back to the floor, "And the little boy we raised will be gone."

"Piper." Leo brushed her hair behind her ear, speaking softly, "We don't have to worry about that just yet, Chris, the other Chris, was in the past for a very long time. They won't be able to see it all for at least a little while longer." He smiled gently.

"No, Leo, it's not like they're watching every single thing that happened, she said they'd be finished tonight." On her last word, large tears finally started to fall.

Leo took a moment to process her words, his forehead crinkled in thought, "But he won't be gone, Piper. They're the same person, it'll still be Chris."

"I know that." She said frustratedly, just before sniffling, "It's just... I'm a terrible mother." her tone changed from despair to guilt.

"What?" Leo was too surprised to try to sound supportive, "Why would you say that?"

"Because." She sighed, "Because when Thalia told me that she was waking up the first Chris tonight," she shook her head slowly, "I was happy."

"So am I." Leo had none of the guilt on his face that Piper did, "And you shouldn't feel bad about it. They are the same person, Piper. This Chris deserves to know all the good he did, he has a right to remember saving the world. Even if that means remembering all the bad things that could have happened." He took Piper's hands in his, "And the other Chris deserves to live in this world that he made possible. He shouldn't have had to _earn_ a happy childhood, but he did a thousand times over, and I'm just thankful that he can finally know what that is. We've been grieving over his death for almost twenty-three years, and we'll finally have our lost son back. We can finally be a whole family again."

"Then why do I feel like I'm losing them both?"

* * *

Evil parallel worlds. It was Chris's turn to shiver. Seeing himself holding a Darklighter crossbow struck a nerve very deep within him. It was just so wrong. Then the balance of Good and Evil went completely out of whack, and Piper was in labor. Chris's heart nearly stopped. This was it. He was about to watch himself die.

_"Chris!" Leo nearly ran into the room._

_He was laid out on the bed, bleeding and sweating. The magic in the athame worked quickly, he didn't have much time left, "Hey."_

_"Hey." Leo's voice trembled as he rushed to Chris's deathbed, "I'm here now. You can hold on, okay? Hold on. Hold on." His words were shaky as he leaned in close, "I'm here. You can hold on, okay?" He put a hand on his son's forehead._

_Chris nodded silently in response, looking pale._

_"Don't give up, okay?" Leo's quiet words were desperate._

_"You, either." Chris struggled to lift his head as he said the words. He gasped. His breathing became labored and his head rolled back. His eyes closed. His heaving breaths staggered and stopped._

_"No. No, please." Leo whispered as if Chris could still hear him._

_Paige leaned silently in the doorway, tears rolling down her face._

_"No." It was a hopeless notion that his refusal could somehow undo it all, "No."_

_Paige broke down first, going from tearful to body-shaking, wracking sobs. All the while not making a noise. Then Leo, collapsing against the too-still chest of his son. As he grieved, the body he held dissipated. Leo didn't move, now crying into the mattress. The heart-rending sound of a parent outliving their child._

The rest of it should have been anti-climactic. Chris and Wyatt both knew that Gideon was stopped, that Piper and Baby Chris survived the birth. What they hadn't known was the fury in Leo's eyes after losing his son, or the fear on Phoebe's and Paige's face over whether Piper and the baby would make it out of that delivery room alive. These were people who put family over absolutely everything else, and they had just lost one of their own.

Thalia called out in that same familiar, fluid language, and the stone turned off. Actually off. Chris took a deep breath, knowing what was coming.  
"Now it's time to say anything to your family that you feel needs saying, and then it'll be time." She didn't have to specify what time, it was foreboding and obvious. Chris had a sinking feeling inside.

* * *

"Here we are again." Paige gave a one-sided smile, but her eyes were red.

"I guess so." Chris felt like someone had replaced his tongue with cotton.

Everyone was crammed into the attic to say goodbye. Wyatt had asked Thalia why she wanted to do the magic there, and she had told him it was because the attic looked virtually the same as it had always looked. Everyone wanted a hug. Nearly everyone said "good luck". Paige made a rather colorful and slightly inappropriate joke. Phoebe made a sappy mini-speech. Piper and Leo each said a very heartfelt, "I love you." It almost felt, to Chris, like he was going off on a trip instead of disappearing into his own brain. The people in front of him started to blur. There wasn't much time.

"Alright, everybody clear out. Not you, Leo." Thalia started rushing people out as Chris sat on the ancient couch.

"Why just me?" Leo asked, glancing to Piper.

"Because you were with him when he died, and you need to be here when he wakes up. Now, please, we need to hurry." Thalia asked Chris to lay back on the couch, she put both of her hands over his head and began to rock back and forth. Her voice held intensity and power, but no discernible meaning, as she chanted in what Chris had begun to suspect was Greek, the rhythmic language she seemed to go to for all of her magic.

Chris felt Leo put a hand on his arm as he started drifting to sleep.


	14. Chapter 14- The Return

**The Return**  
**2004**

It wasn't so much that it hurt. The initial pain was staggering, of course, but his body went into shock pretty quickly. He felt warmth, almost like a space heater was set on high and placed just beneath his skin. It enveloped him, a throbbing, numbing heat. It only hurt, a true wince inducing pain, when he moved. It caught his breath and twisted his insides in sharp flashes.

But after awhile the pain settled, succumbing to the spreading numbness. He felt as if he was laying on a sinking raft, slowly slipping below the water's surface. He tried to focus on his father's face, the pleading look in Leo's eyes. Chris had always been a survivor, more than that, a fighter, but this time he just wanted to sleep. His vision was fading, his thoughts turning to static. He took a deep breath, and slipped away.

**2027**

Christopher Perry Halliwell knew he was dead. It was instinctive. More truthfully, he knew he had died. At the moment he was breathing, laying on what felt like a couch, and breathing. He could hear the sound of at least two other people breathing nearby. The floor squeaked. The uniquely complaining squeal, not unlike an oboe getting stepped on, that could only mean he was in the attic. He opened his eyes.

"Dad?" Leo was kneeling next to the couch, staring with fear and wonder at his son. Chris sat up, taking stock of his surroundings. There was a stranger, a pretty young woman standing off to the side, but otherwise the attic was empty. There were two possible answers. The first being Leo had found Gideon, saved Wyatt, and used the cursed athame in some sort of spell or ritual to heal him. The young lady could have helped and that would explain her presence. The second was his father had rushed straight to finding a healer and saved him because time was definitely of the essence. Chris desperately hoped it wasn't option number two. If it was, then it was the one time Leo had truly picked him over Wyatt and it could have undone everything Chris had worked for. How much time had been wasted in finding a way to heal him?

Leo just stared at him like Chris was a shooting star, and if he blinked he'd miss it.

Chris jumped up, "Where's Wyatt?" He was about to orb off, or go on a rant, or possibly telekinetically chuck a heavy object at somebody. He must've looked about as tumultuous as he felt, because Leo stood too.

The former elder opened his mouth to speak, but words just weren't coming.

"He's downstairs." The woman cut in quickly. Chris looked to his father for verification, but all he got was a bear hug.

"Chris." The word broke in half, sounding more like a sob than language.

Chris returned the hug, surprisingly happy to be alive.

Leo simply rocked side to side, stretching out the bone-crushing embrace, repeating his son's name as if it were the only word necessary.

"Dad, it's alright, I'm here. I'm okay." Chris pulled away when oxygen became an issue. Leo kept a hand on his shoulder, as if making sure he was solid. Chris, however, was undeterred, "Did you save him? Is he really downstairs?"

"Yes." Leo gave a crooked smile, "He's safe, and Gideon's dead."

Chris was about to return the smile, it was the best news he could have ever heard, but then he noticed something. He wanted to kick himself. He'd always been very observant and quick on his feet. It was the main reason he'd survived so long, so how could he not have noticed immediately?

Chris stepped back, "You're..." He let the word hang. The man before him was much older than the Leo of 2004, but he was also very definitely not the man Chris had grown up knowing. That Leo had given up on caring about his children on Chris's fourteenth birthday.

"Chris." The girl stepped forward at last, "Hey, there. My name's Thalia, and basically, there's a lot of explaining to be done, so just try to remain calm."

* * *

"What the hell is taking so long?" Piper was not a patient woman.

"Calm down, honey, Thalia knows what she's doing."

"Shut it with that crap, Phoebe, I'm allowed to be a little on edge." She paced and shuffled anxiously.

"Piper, it has literally been less than..." Paige checked her watch, "five minutes since we left the attic. Could ya cool it?" Piper Halliwell, the most powerful witch on the planet, responded by sticking out her tongue.

* * *

Chris was on good news overload. He was putting his disbelief on hold, but he couldn't call it acceptance of the new situation. In a nutshell, he was told that the future had been saved, and he'd been plunked down right into it. Not only that, but according to Thalia, he'd eventually have both sets of memories. He might just get to know what a happy childhood would have been like.

It was a little much. Okay, a lot much for someone like Chris. He could handle bad news, could keep on trucking through the worst kinds of tragedy. He had no idea how to handle good news. He still didn't really believe it, but he wasn't going to argue with Leo. There was just one thing on his mind, "Is everyone... is Mom still..." how to say this gently, "How much has changed?"

"I think I know how to answer that question." Thalia smiled roguishly and skip-stepped over to the door.

They must've been waiting just outside the door, because almost immediately all three Charmed Ones walked into the attic. Chris couldn't breathe. They'd always been lovely, but somehow the grey hairs and laugh lines made them even more beautiful. In Chris's timeline, none of them had lived long enough to show many signs of aging.

Then there was his mother, tears threatening to fall, headed straight for him. She had a silver streak making it's way through her long, dark hair. She looked like an angel.

"Mom." He couldn't move, but he didn't have to. She rushed towards him, and hugged him fiercely. Within moments both his aunts joined in.

"ooooh, we missed you, you neurotic little weirdo!" Paige squealed.

"Welcome back." the very heartfelt voice of Phoebe came out sounding muffled from somewhere inside the mass of hugging.

"You guys are amazing." Chris let out a laugh, reveling in the moment.

Standing quietly by the door, feeling uninvited and intrusive, was Wyatt.

"Go say hi." Thalia must've snuck over to stand by him during the commotion, She whispered into his ear like a little kid telling a secret, "Go say hi." She repeated, grinning and gesturing for him to head towards his brother.

Wyatt walked slowly over to Chris, who was still in the center of the group hug. It shouldn't have been intimidating, but it was.

Leo saw Wyatt first, and ran to stand next to him, "Chris, this is Wyatt." He spoke as if introducing the two. In a sense, he was.

The group hug dispersed, but Piper didn't move very far away. Chris' attention was immediately one hundred percent on his big brother. He stood completely still, staring Wyatt down as if searching for something.

Wyatt took a deep breath, "I just wanted to say that... without you as a lab partner I would've failed Chemistry. I didn't mind doctors appointments when we were kids, because I knew you hated hospitals just as much as I did. You think your sarcasm is funnier than it is, and when you get really mad your voice gets quiet. That last thing you get from Mom, if you hadn't realized it." He hesitated,

"What I'm trying to say is, I've always known everything about my little brother, and he's always known everything about me, and as of today that is no longer true. There isn't much about you that I know, but I do know that I wouldn't be who I am, I wouldn't have had the life that I did, without you. So, thank you." It was sincere, and articulate for something spur-of-the-moment.

Chris just held his stare, and after a moment gave a one-sided smile, "You've always been able to give a good speech."

Wyatt cringed at the remark, and Chris' smirk turned into a genuine smile, "Don't worry, as far as I can tell, you're nothing like him."

He didn't have to specify who "him" was. The two brothers smiled at each other, a little awkwardly, but it was a step in the right direction.

"Hey, Chris, wanna meet your cousins?" Phoebe was too excited to stay quiet any longer, so she shuffled over and interrupted the brothers' moment.

Before Chris could answer, Piper took hold of his arm and started steering him down the stairs, "Not on your life Phoebe, let's not overwhelm him. First, Chris and Wyatt are going to help me cook dinner. Leo is still on kitchen probation, but he can watch. The cousins probably need to be filled in on everything before introductions are made, anyway." Piper had spoken, and no one argued.

* * *

The attic was quiet. Thalia stood alone, chuckling under her breath. This had gone well. The sun had just finished setting, and the family needed a night of celebration. Bad things were coming.


End file.
